By LeVaughn Flynn, Staff Reporter 
Jamaica College players celebrate their second consecutive ISSA/KFC Under-19 Southern Conference Schoolboy Basketball title at the Stadium courts yesterday after beating Wolmer's 67-57 to win the three-game series 2-1. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer
JAMAICA COLLEGE (JC) defended their ISSA/KFC Southern Conference Under-19 Schoolboys Basketball title with a 67-57 win over Wolmer's Boys to take the Best-of-Three series 2-1 in front of drum-beating fans at the Stadium courts yesterday.
Rohan Cruise's game-high 23 points helped JC to retain their title after a valiant effort from Wolmer's almost threatened a repeat title success. Cruise also collected 12 rebounds, eight assists and six steals.
This is Wolmer's second loss to JC in the final after going down in last year's series 2-0.
JC dominated the boards where they out-rebounded Wolmer's 53-37 and were particularly strong on defensive rebounds, denying Wolmer's second chances. Omar Barnes grabbed 27 of those rebounds and netted 22 points for the champs.
After reliving last year's final, JC's coach Jason James said that it all came down to "experience" and executing when it really matters.
"We won it last year and I think our experience paid off," said James.
JC led by as many as 17 points (63-46) late in the third quarter where Wolmer's had a hard time finding the bottom of the net.
Thane McKenzie led the Wolmerians with 21 points and Andre Hewitt added 12 points and eight rebounds but Wolmer's had problems scoring down the stretch.
"Sometimes to focus on the things that you have to do is kind of hard, especially when you are playing a championship game of this magnitude," said Wolmer's coach Howard 'Chicken' Harvey of his team's second half woes.
"Not taking anything away from JC, they did a good job. They forced us out of our comfort zone especially on offence and we didn't do a good job of forcing them out of theirs," he pointed out.
