BELIZE CITY, Wed. Dec. 16, 2015–The National Secondary Schools Sports Association (NSSSA) National Basketball Championship, co-sponsored by Bowen & Bowen (Crystal Brand) and SOL Belize Ltd., and hosted by Escuela Secundaria Tecnica High School, was held last Friday and Saturday, December 11-12, at the Andres Campos Civic Center in Corozal Town.
Representing female (F) and male (M) high schools as champions of their respective country zones were:
NORTH: (F) San Pedro High School (SPHS); (M) Muffles College (MC).
CENTRAL: (F) St. Catherine Academy (SCA); (M) Gwen Lizarraga High School (GLH).
WEST: (F) Sacred Heart College (SHC); (M) Sacred Heart College (SHC).
SOUTH: (F) Delille Academy (DA); (M) Julian Cho Technical High School (JCTHS).
The tournament followed a simple knockout format, with losers on Friday playing for third place on Saturday, while Friday’s winners moved on to the championship finals on Saturday.
In games on Friday, (F) SCA defeated DA, 40-20; for SCA, Indie Dixon 14 pts, Tricia Jefferies 12 pts; and for DA, Orel Gillett and Starlite Requena 8 pts each. (M) JCT won over GLH, 63-51. For JCT, Arik Nicholas 15 pts, Adrian Vernon 14 pts; and for GLH, Keyvon Evans 13 pts, Trey Gentle 8 pts. (F) SPH trounced SHC, 26-8. For SPH, Aliyah Elliot 11 pts; and for SHC, Cheyanne Gordon 4 pts. (M) MC clipped SHC, 53-45. For MC, Dwayne Avila 22 pts, Cesar Vasquez 21 pts; and for SHC, Kyron Molina 14 pts, Afrie Black and Raheem Crawford 8 pts each.
In the third place games on Saturday, (F) Delille shelled Sacred Heart, 46-15, behind Starlite Requena 21 pts and Kayla Robateau 10 pts; while Lucia Tesecum had 9 pts for Sacred Heart. And (M) Sacred Heart dropped Gwen Liz, 69-59. Leading Sacred Heart were Afrie Black and Kyron Molina with 14 pts each, and Raheem Crawford with 13 pts; while for Gwen Liz, Devontae Middleton and Kieron Salazar had 8 pts apiece.
The female championship game was a blow-out, as SCA ran over San Pedro High, 34-4. SCA was led by Tricia Jefferies 10 pts and Indie Dixon 9 pts, while Ada Cordova and Ariene Benguche got 2 pts apiece for San Pedro.
And in the male championship clash, Julian Cho Technical prevailed over Muffles College, 59-44. Arik Nicholas 25 pts and Adrian Vernon 11 pts were high scorers for Julian Cho, while Muffles College was led by Dwayne Avila 18 pts and Cesar Vasquez 12 pts.
(Information courtesy Deon Sutherland of NSSSA)