Adrian Frater, News Editor
WESTERN BUREAU:
MUSCHETT HIGH School of Trelawny completed a clean sweep in the 2005-06 KFC/ Western Conference schools basketball season on Wednesday night when they scored an emphatic 81-65 win over Maldon High to win their best-of-three Under-19 finals by a 2-1 margin.
"I never doubted that we would have won this title as we had been dominating all season," said Muschett's coach, Trelan Johnson, whose Under-16 team swept William Knibb 2-0 in their best-of-three finals. "We believe we have two excellent teams and we are looking to make at least the semi-finals in both all-island play-offs."
In Wednesday night's Under-19 final game, which came in the aftermath of Muschett's easy win in game one but subsequent loss by a 71-69 margin in game two, the expected battle royal never materialised as except for a late third-quarter rally by Maldon, Muschett were in control all the way. In the first quarter, Muschett quickly moved into a comfortable lead as skipper Linton Lambert, who shot a game high 24 points, guided them to a 19-11 lead as Maldon appeared erratic and were guilty of poor defending a woeful execution. The second quarter served up more Muschett dominance as Stephen James, who score 15 points, joined Lambert in creating more misery for Maldon as they opened up a commanding 42-26 going into the halftime break. At that stage, Maldon already looked a beaten team.
In the third quarter, Maldon finally began to show some amount of composure as Dwayne Johns, who got 23 points, and Neville James, 13 points, gradually began to find their range. However, Muschett remained dominant, keeping their wide margin intact as the third quarter ended 62-34.
In the final quarter, Maldon made a bold, last-ditch effort to claw their way back into the game, scoring 28 points but by then it was already too late as Muschett, who got an additional 21 points in the quarter, were still comfortably ahead at the final whistle.
