A WHOLE BUNCH of stars are set to hit the road next year.
Two junior teams, StARZ and Rising Stars, will be representing Barbados at next summer’s Lesser Antilles 3×3 Under-18 basketball tournament after winning Sunday’s respective girls’ and boys’ Barbados Independence Invitational Games national qualifiers in Clapham.
Led by tournament and finals MVP Kiserian Adams, Rising Stars steamrolled Shooting Stars 21-10 in the boys’ final after StARZ recorded an even more impressive 19-4 victory over Life Savers in the girls’ equivalent.
The huge margin of victory comes as no surprise, considering the champion StARZ side comprised national junior players Zahra Ashby, Rashanna Thorne, Alesha Squires and Stephian Shepherd, who all play for the Combined Schools Hoopsters in the women’s league.
And their semi-final win was more dominant still as they held In the Zone Ballers scoreless in a 21-0 rout.
Thorne copped both the tournament and finals MVP while Shepherd won the free throw shooting competition and Ivanna Odle went on to take the skills challenge.
The similarly loaded Rising Stars had no real competition either, as the all-Premier League side featuring national juniors Adams, Rasheed Maynard, Deroni Hurley and Darren Nurse downed OK3 18-13 in the semis.
Shooting Stars took care of Young Ballers 16-7 in the other final four contest but also proved to be of little threat to the star-studded Rising Stars squad.
OK3 then held on to beat Young Ballers 9-6 in the ensuing third-place game. Adams also accounted for the free throw shooting competition while Hurley won the skills challenge. (JM)
