Combermere Under-16 Basketball champs

CRICKET’S POWERHOUSES have now become basketball bullies as well.Tournament MVP Chiamaka Browne scored 11 of his game-high 23 points in the first quarter as Combermere added the league crown to their regular season title to cap a perfect Co-operators General Insurance Under-16 season in yesterday’s 54-41 championship-game rout of Harrison College at the Wildey Gymnasium.It was the first ever double in the sport for the Waterford lads, who only just ended a decade-long basketball title drought last season following years of dominating play inside the boundary.But it would take all of Combermere’s cricket titles these last ten years to equal the lead they built in the contest’s first ten minutes (21-3) when Browne had finished scoring a string of seven unanswered points to effectively put away the game.The crafty floor general began the surge with a baseline trey, before adding a subsequent floater and a lay-up in transition to more than triple the opposition’s score with 2:39 to play in the period.This came on the heels of an opening 8-0 Cawmere run, started by successive drives by Lemar Coward and David King prior to Browne cementing the start with a short jumper. Chioke Holder’s three first quarter free throws were about all ‘Kolij’ could manage before they welcomed Browne’s brief stay on the bench with successive jumpers from Scott Holder and Anand Joseph-Thorne.However, the fleeting rally was even more short-lived than Browne’s absence, as Coward quickly replied with a basket underneath while Remy Samuel sank a three right before King aptly finished the half with a buzzer-beating bucket to put the top seeds up 38-13.Despite failing to score three minutes on the other side of the whistle, Combermere actually led by as many as 29 points (47-18) in spite of Harrison College swingman Darian Chandler’s brief spurt.It served as a showcase of the fourth quarter, as the ‘Kolij’ wing player poured in 15 of his team-high 19 points in that period, combining with Holder to outscore the opposing reserves 24-7 as Cawmere cleared the bench in the midst of the rout.“As usual it feels great, winning is a disease that you want to have,” expressed victorious head coach Stuart Mayers.“The guys played well as a unit for the entire season because it was truly a team effort and this was the culmination of three years of team work.“We were fortunate to win last year but this year, bringing back the same team from last year, I knew we would’ve done well.”King assisted Browne with ten points while Holder finished with 11 for Harrison College.