Two days of national high school basketball playoffs at the R. Angel Nunez Auditorium of San Pedro High School saw male (M) and female (F) zone champions from the North, Central, West and South competing for the national high school basketball championship on Friday and Saturday, December 16 and 17, in San Pedro.
It was a knockout affair, with round 1 on Friday seeing (F) St. Catherine Academy (SCA) defeating Delille Academy, 28-15. Kursha Pollard led SCA with 13 pts, while Glenda Arana scored 14 pts for Delille. Next was (M) Sadie Vernon demolishing Stann Creek Ecumenical, 77-38, behind Andrew Ortiz 20 pts and Kaschief Thomas 16 pts. For Ecumenical, Brandon Castillo had 13 pts and Frank Williams, Jr. 9 pts. In a tough female encounter, it was (F) Muffles College, 18-15, over Sacred Heart College. Selvani Leiva contributed 9 pts and Deja Cummings 6 pts for Muffles, while Jasmine Armstrong had 8 pts for Sacred Heart. And in the final game on Friday, (M) San Pedro High School pulled out the 53-48 win over a game Belmopan Comprehensive School. Michael Guan had 17 pts and Charles Richards 13 pts for San Pedro, while Compre’ was led by Akeem Watters 25 pts and Christopher Enriquez 10 pts.
Saturday’s action began with the female 3rd place match, with (F) Delille Academy easily crushing Sacred Heart, 36-15, with Glenda Arana leading Delille with 17 pts. For Sacred Heart, Jasmine Armstrong had 10 pts. Next was the male 3rd place game, and it was (M) Belmopan Comprehensive with an impressive 58-37 victory over Stann Creek Ecumenical. Akeem Watters 18 pts and Marlon Salazar 11 pts led the scoring for Compre’, while Quinton Bowen and Hyden Casimiro each dropped in 8 pts for Ecumenical.
Next was the female championship game, and (F) SCA was in full control, rolling over Muffles College, 30-13, behind Gilda Estrada 15 pts and Kursha Pollard 7 pts, to claim the 2011 national high school female basketball championship. Deja Cummings had 3 pts for 2nd place Muffles College. And in the male championship match, there was no blow-out, but defending champion Sadie Vernon stood their ground to retain their crown with an 82-68 victory over host team San Pedro High School. Last year’s MVP Kaschief Thomas led Sadie Vernon with 27 pts and their big center Andrew Ortiz adding 20 pts; while for 2nd place San Pedro High, Charles Richards sank 21 pts and Michael Guan 18 pts in the loss.
Female MVP for the tournament was SCA’s Gilda Estrada, who totaled 19 pts, 11 rebounds and 3 steals; while Male MVP was Sadie Vernon’s Andrew Ortiz, who tallied 40 pts and 28 rebounds in the tournament.