PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten –-In the 5th week of the Interscholastic Basketball Championship (IBC) for primary schools organized by the Walichi Basketball Association, St. Dominic Primary, Sr. Marie Laurence, St. Joseph and Sr. Magda delivered intense games for fans at the LB Scott Sports Auditorium.
In the first game of the afternoon, St. Dominic Primary School went up against Sr. Marie Laurence. This game was tight from the beginning and saw A’dondre Huggins of St. Dominic and Shequan Illis of Sr. Marie Laurence go back and forth scoring for their teams.
The first half ended with St. Dominic only leading by 1 at 14-13. In the second half, Kendrick Mohamed scored two 3-pointers to have Sr. Marie Laurence looking good at closing and winning the game. St. Dominic had the ball with 12 seconds left and down 1, 20-21 and off a missed shot A’dondre Huggins got fouled and made one free throw to force the game into overtime at 21-21.
In overtime, a shootout of 5 free throws had St. Dominic scoring three times to Sr. Marie Laurence’s one time to secure the comeback win 24-22. Sr. Marie Laurence Primary school was led by Shequan Illis with 15 points and Kendrick Mohamed with 9 points. St. Dominic was led by A’dondre Huggins with 15 points and Carl Gomez with 7 points. At the end, the players and fans of St. Dominic shared a moment of pure relief and accomplishment of their comeback win.
In the second game, the intensity continued with St. Joseph School playing Sr. Magda Primary School. Both teams battled hard in the first half, which saw Sr. Magda only lead 10-9 at the half. The second half saw St. Joseph get and extend their lead to 4 points with under a minute to play looking to secure the win. Sr. Magda had other plans and got to the line multiple times in the last minute to get within 1 point at 19-18 by making their free throws. St. Joseph school got the ball with 24 seconds left and dribbled out the game as time expired, and they escaped with the 1-point victory 19-18.
Teachers, students and players were joyous over the victory and saw players doing cartwheels on the court. St. Joseph school was led by Alex Godoy with 9 points and Kayvaughn Schmidt with 6 points. Sr. Magda Primary School was led by Aiden Busby with 10 points.
Games continue for Pool B on Friday, February 19, at LB Scott Sports Complex Auditorium starting at 3:30pm. Semi-finals will be held next Thursday, February 25, and the championship game will be next Friday, February 26. Come out and support the youth on the island.
IBC nail biters have fans on their feet with entertaining games
