Not even Combermere’s best was good enough to derail the Kolij train.
Don’t look now, but Harrison College are just one game away from perfection after the Division One favourites survived some nervous moments before going on a 21-7 game-closing run to beat Combermere 81-61 in Wednesday’s United Insurance Schools’ Basketball semi-finals at the Wildey Gym.
The win put them one step closer to history, and into Monday’s final against defending champs Barbados Community College (BCC), who held on for a last-second 55-49 win over an upset-minded Queen’s College.
For a while Cawmere looked likely to pull off a shocker, too, having overcome a 12-point deficit (45-33) to get within six (60-54) on the second of successive baskets from Christopher Collymore midway through the fourth quarter.
But Combermere quickly lost focus thereafter while vociferously arguing for a basket they thought wasn’t awarded to them.
The scoreboard was eventually adjusted, though, just not on their side.
With their opponents clearly rattled, Kolij rattled off the next 11 points without reply as Joel Hunte had a series of baskets including a spectacular coast-to-coast layup after Runako Boyce started the run with a huge trey.
And what Boyce started, Anand Joseph-Thorne made sure to finish, with the crafty playmaker turning the game’s final minutes into his personal highlight reel by beating defender after defender off the dribble.
At one point the über-talented ball-handler crossed up Collymore twice on the same play before drilling a long-range jumper, having previously left Collymore in his wake for a deft floater in the lane.
Kolij weren’t even done piling on the hurt either as Nikolai Burton added a pair of free throws before little-used reserves Rashad Downes and Joniton Fowler capped the run with a pair of buckets.
It was the expected blowout finish to a game that started anything but, while Combermere went toe-to-toe with their more heralded opponents via the inspiring play of Akindele Licorish and Derion Hurley.
Burton seemingly threatened to blow open the contest in the second quarter after furiously attacking the rack to turn a 19-16 first-quarter cushion into a menacing 30-20 advantage.
That lead ballooned to 12 on the other side of the break following two layups from Hunte and two Burton free throws.
However, Hurley had eight quick points off a long jumper, layup and free throws before big man Licorish got in on the act via successive post moves that locked the scores at 47. Even Joseph-Thorne’s nifty left-handed floater wasn’t enough to shake Cawmere until their eventual fourth-quarter meltdown.
Burton and Hunte both finished with 24 points and Joseph-Thorne added 12, while Hurley led Combermere with 20 points.
In the night cap, forward Ammuniki Wood had seven of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter, including a crucial free throw to make the contest a three-possession game with 20 seconds left.
The reigning champs never managed to rid themselves of Queen’s College until the dying seconds after never leading by more than nine points (45-36) following Wood’s massive two-handed tip slam towards the end of the third quarter.
Torian Deane had a layup to open the fourth before Nicholas Grannum and Devon Deane accounted for four quick points to pull QC within two (48-46) midway through the period. But Queen’s College couldn’t make good on any open looks and Torian Deane missed a point blank layup to let BCC off the hook.
Wood then split a pair of free throws down the stretch.
