Royals’ Linden Schools U-19 basketball  final …
A SHARP-SHOOTING Marlon Persaud ‘busted’ open a close final with back-to-back treys that allowed Linden Foundation Secondary (LFS) to canter home 59-41 and claim the title when the Victory Valley Royals’ 6th annual Linden Schools Under-19 basketball championship concluded on Thursday night at the Mackenzie Sports Club hard court.
It was a fitting final to a tournament which was well organised once again and a full house included some of United States-based sponsors, among whom was former national women’s coach Linden Alphonso, who expressed loud praises for Digicel’s timely sponsorship of Kwakwani Secondary to participate in this tournament for the first time.
When one remembers that in the preliminary round of this tournament New Silvercity Secondary (NSS), with their ‘big men’ inside prevailed by a 38-35 score, it was expected that the final would be a tough encounter. This game saw NSS play the game at their pace and rightly so as tbey were able to dictate the pattern of things and hold on to lead at halftime 22-20.
This time, however, shooting forward Marlon Persaud and his teammates, led by Theodore Tappin, must have sensed a strategy to earn them what would eventually be a memorable victory.
Persaud turned up the throttle at the right moment as the game was evenly balanced to give them the necessary boost.
It was back to basics and with them opening up for the shots after going inside first where NSS post players were stationed, the ball was kicked out back for Persaud to launch his deadly missiles.
This turned out to be the turning point of the game in front of a vociferous crowd which had gathered for this final, and Persaud by his outstanding shooting was later named deservedly the Most Valuable Player of the final.
With LFS barely ahead, 39-38, in the late stages of the half of the game, Perasud came out ‘trigger happy’ by knocking down three successive treys from beyond the arc. It helped the LFS to wrest the initiative from their arch rivals and they eventually held their opponents in check with a 20-3 run, that saw them home as winners.
Persaud, who netted 29 points littered with six 3-pointers, however, did get some very useful contributions from his teammates power forward Jeffrey Larose who hauled in a tournament-high 11 rebounds and 11 points, while teammate guard Theodore Tappin quarterbacked his side with eight points and six assists.
Big centre Jermaine Johnson was the main stay for the NSS team with 11 points while fellow ‘big man’ Yannick Primo had 10 pints.
In the third-place playoff game Kwakwani Secondary ended their first outing in these championships, compliments of Digicel’s sponsorship, by beating defending champions Mackenzie High 63-50 after taking the lead at lemon time 42-26.
Dwight Douglas had a game-high 22 points as Eon Meredith and Dave Plass added 11 points each. MHS top players were Sheldron Noel who had 12 pints and Dellon Campbell 10.
Captain of LFS, Theopdore Tappin, grabbed the Kenny Chapman lien trophy for the champions, while coach of Linden Sean Jerrick received the Champions trophy. Digicel’s Gavin Hope also presented Digicel haversacks to each member of the winning LFS side.
Leading scorers for the teams making it to the last four received trophies also with Kwakwani Secondary’s Dwight Douglas who had the most points in the tournament (123) while Linden Foundation’s Larose netted  99, NSS’s Marlon Pollydore had 95 and MHS’s Sheldron Noel scored 65 points. All received trophies. 
Pollydore also gained trophies when he walked away with the Highest Scorer award with 34 points and he was named the MVP on the losing side in the final. Pollydore and Persaud got balls and boots for grabbing those MVP awards.  Third-placed Kwakwani Secondary School were named the Most Disciplined Team while they gained a trophy and replicas for placing third. Mackenzie High got a trophy and medals.