Controversy, drama highlight road to final

Jamaica College bounced back in fine style to defeat St George’s College on the road in their second ISSA Urban Under-19 schoolboy basketball semi-final game on Friday, evening the series at 1-1 and setting the stage for a winner-take-all contest at Jamaica College. The winners of that encounter will advance to the finals.

Defending champions Campion College, meanwhile, booked their spot in the finals in controversial fashion after hosts Camperdown forfeited their game.

In what was an extremely close encounter, with the lead changing hands on several occasions, controversy erupted in the final five seconds. With Camperdown leading 54-52 and Campion having the final possession, Campion scored to draw level and force overtime. However, the Camperdown coaching staff protested vehemently, claiming that the final shot was taken after the buzzer went off and should not have counted.

Following the protest, Camperdown pulled their team from playing the extra period, resulting in Campion being awarded a 20-0 forfeit victory and wrapping up the series 2-0 to advance to the finals.

“The officials erred big time as the final basket scored by Campion should not have stood,” said a furious Oneil Brown, head coach of Camperdown.

“With the biggest crowd ever at a home game for us and with the loud noise around, they did not hear the buzzer, and it was only after consulting with other people.”

Campion head coach Ryan Martell was pleased with the outcome and his team’s return to the finals.

“We are delighted to be back in the finals to defend our title. Camperdown is a very good team and many-time winners, but we have a great programme at Campion and we are looking forward to winning another title, irrespective of who we face in the finals,” said Martell.

At St George’s College, Jamaica College were led by another outstanding performance from Oritdomztosan Ikolo, who produced 24 points and 28 rebounds in a 63-53 victory. Head coach Duane Cunningham was pleased with the response from his team and welcomed the opportunity to play the deciding game at home.

“The guys turned up today as we made some adjustments, and they started off very well and maintained it to the end. Happy to even the score, as St George’s College has a great programme, and beating them on their home court gives us a lot of confidence going forward,” said Cunningham.

“The deciding game will be no pushover as, like us, St George’s has a great chance of having two teams (U16 and U19) in the finals, and that makes it even more interesting. But we are ready for this. We have more adjustments to make, and hopefully this time we will make home-court advantage count,” he added.