William Knibb, St George's bag KFC basketball titles

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

William Knibb Memorial High and St George's College captured the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/KFC Under-19 and Under-16 All-Island Basketball titles, respectively, at the National Stadium Courts on Thursday.

In the junior final, the North Street-based St George's College recorded a narrow 59-57 victory over former champions Old Harbour.

The Trelawny-based William Knibb secured their first hold on the national title after defeating Jamaica College (JC) 66-58 in the very competitive final.

William Knibb were led to victory courtesy of Shavaughn Reid's game-high 28 points and 10 rebounds. Reid received solid support from Don-Michael Fray, 12 points, and Alwayne Smith 13 and five rebounds.

William Knibb led 31-25 at half-time and 49-39 at the end of the third period. Kemar Campbell was the leading scorer for JC with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

Ronald Beckford, coach of William Knibb, was delighted with his team's performance.

"We are elated because this is first time a school from the Western Conference is winning the competition," said Beckford.

Hard work and dedication

"The boys are also very happy as well because this is the first that any of them is winning a National Championships and they are elated for that," he said.

He added that hard work and dedication were the key factors that contributed to his team's success this season.

"It took a lot of work from us to win this title because we have worked very hard over the past year to win this National Championships," said Beckford.

"We never knew what JC had to offer because we had never seen them play before, but we went out with the objective to take the lead from the start, and it worked out in our favour," Beckford stated. Reid was named the Most Valuable Player of the final.