Hydel streak away from KC

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Hydel and St Andrew Technical High School (STATHS) will meet in the best-of-three final of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/KFC Southern Conference Under-19 basketball competition, following comfortable semi-final victories over Kingston College (KC) and Meadowbrook, respectively, on Monday at the National Stadium Courts.

Hydel, which last won the title in 2000, defeated KC 58-42 in a one-sided match. They led 24-20 at half-time and 37-36 at the end of the third quarter.

The Kurt Stewart-coached Hydel were led to victory courtesy of good all-round performances from Jervis Hamilton, who tallied a game-high 31 points, 15 rebounds and seven steals and was well supported by Paul Richards', 15 points, 13 rebounds and four steals.

Stewart was very delighted with his team's performance.

"I think that this was a technical win because my boys executed the game right to the end," he said.

"I knew that KC was going to come at us in the first half, but I was always confident that we could withstand their pressure and we did, and so the game became very easy for us," Stewart added.

Ramoy Hemmings 14 points, eight steals and seven assists and Kemoy Wright, 13 points and 10 rebounds, were the leading contributors for the Marlon Nattie-coached KC.

STATHS, who are the only unbeaten team in the competition this season, secured their path to the final with a 64-41 thrashing of Meadowbrook.

Main scorer

Lamont Lindsay was the main scorer for the Venreece Watson-coached STATHS, netting a game-high 30 points and accumulating nine steals. Lindsay received good support from Ricardo Greaves, who had 14 points and 22 rebounds.

Corey Anderson, with 15 points and Maurice Smith, 12, were the main contributors for Meadowbrook.

Watson said he was pleased with his team's effort because they played a very disciplined match.

"I think that my team gave us about 80 per cent of what we know they can give us, but we will take it in this match, and so the next match we will be going for the 100 percent," said Watson.

"We started out the game very slowly and we will have to improve on that for the finals. But I know that we are very confident, and once they give it all they've got then we should be victorious in the finals," Watson reasoned.

Meanwhile, defending champions Ardenne will contest the Under-16 finals against St Jago. Ardenne defeated St George's College 49-42, while St Jago beat Calabar 24-21.

Both divisions of the final will begin tomorrow at the same venue.

"I think that this was a technical win because my boys executed the game right to the end," said Stewart