AFTER faltering at the final hurdle last year, the Christianburg/Wismar Secondary (Multi), led by Terron Welch who scored 48 points, the highest individual score for this year’s basketball tournament, exacted revenge by destroying defending champions Linden Technical Institute (LTI), 115-26, while Wisburg Secondary had to battle their way past Linden Foundation 49-47 to reach the 2013 Linden Secondary Schools Under-19 final.

In the semifinals on Friday at the Mackenzie Sports Club Hard Court the ‘Multi’ side, which lost last year’s final against LTI, showed no respect for the reigning champions and crushed them to install themselves as the prohibitive favourites to win this year’s championship.
The ‘Multi’ side were off to a fast-paced start as they led 22-10 when the first quarter finished, and rushed to a 50-20 lead by the end of the first half.
Unable to keep up with this pace the hapless LTI players were held to just six points in the second half of the match, two of which came in the final quarter, as Multi blasted their opponents away 115-26.
Off-guard Welch continues to show his consistency with that super 48-point effort while defensive specialist Edmar Semple continues to play at both ends of the floor with 20 points and Omatayo Holder adding 19 in the win.
Only Marlon Alexander could get a double-figure score of 11 points for the LTI team.
The second semifinal was a close affair with Wisburg, who had earlier lost by four points when the two teams met in the earlier round of the tournament, seemingly getting away in the second quarter as they led 31-24, after nudging ahead 13-11 when the first quarter ended.
But the Linden Foundation team rallied back into serious contention, as Isaiah Kellman received solid support from Vibert Benjamin; after Kellman had kept his side in contention with some key baskets. Then Benjamin scored seven of his team’s 13 third-quarter points to see them level the scores at 37, going into the last quarter.
It was anybody’s game up to the final minute but Wisburg emerged winners, by a narrow 49-47 win.
Aubrey Campbell led the Wisburg side with a top score of 15 while Tahquille Johnson continued to impress with 14 as Seon McKinnon chipped in with seven for the winners.
Wellman had 15 points and Benjamin 14 for Linden Foundation who will now play LTI for the third-place spot, which will precede the final featuring Multi against Wisburg some time this week.