James Adderley’s pre-Christmas Sports update
Good Evening, I’m James Adderley and this is Sports Monday.
The national Secondary Schools Sporting Association proudly presented its national basketball tournament at San Pedro inside the Angel Nunez Auditorium on Saturday and we join the championship match between San Pedro High and Sadie Vernon Tech of Belize City as Andrew Ortiz faces Charles Richards to tip things off. It’s a great start for San Pedro as Afrie Kyle Black opens the scoreboard with this nice lay off the glass. Sadie Vernon gets the reply from Podrick Williams who stays with this play until he delivers 2 of his 15 game points. Jamel Ashton Jones then hits this bucket for San Pedro—he would finish with 18 pts ad at the end of the 1st quarter, the host team trails 22 to 20. In the 2nd, Sadie Vernon creates some distance as Kashief Thomas dishes to Andrew Ortiz who hits 2 of his 20 points right here and would also pull 9 boards. At the other end, Michael Quan’s reverse is good—he would strike for 17 pts. On defense, Sadie Vernon displays its edge as Ryan Michael hands Fernando Ariel a rejection slip. Michael Quan then finds Charles Richards with the no look pass and the big man finishes. Richards would lead his team with 21 pts and 14 rebounds to post the only 2 doubles of the match up.
This gives Sadie Vernon’s big man more motivation so Andrew Ortiz replies with this monster 2 hand jam. At the half, Sadie Vernon is up 48-36. The big man war continues into the 3rd quarter and we must say Charles Richards is impressive. Nevertheless, Sadie Vernon wouldn’t look back—Kashief Thomas sinks this rough bucket for 2 of his game high 27 pts but his 11 turnovers might have taken him out of the MVP picture. Here he lands the 3 pointer but he would hit 500 24 from beyond the arc and that’s simply unacceptable. Despite the fact that San Pedro only got 2 pts off turnovers, at the end of the 3rd, Sadie Vernon extends the lead to 17. Sadie Vernon goes on to win this one 82-68 and we say congratulations to Andrew Ortiz who emerged with the MVP honors.
On the female side, Saint Catherine’s Academy of Belize City had an easy time against Muffles College of Orange Walk and it’s Golda Estrada jumping against Deja Cunnings at the tip off. Kersha Pollard got St. Catherine’s going hitting 7 game points. However, it was Gilda Estrada who puts Catherine’s on her back—scoring 15 of her total 30 points. Here she is going behind her back to put up 2 more points as St. Catherine’s goes on to win 30 to 13 and are the national female high school champions. Naturally, Gilda Estrada was voted most valuable player and we say congrats to one and all.
Turning to football news, the Belize District Female Competition completed its championship series at the MCC Groudns yesterday with the Island Stars of Caye Caulker going in having host game 1 to Smart Millennium in a 6-zip blast. Actually, very little changed from the previous outing and we’re some 13 minutes in when Sherian Tracy mounts this individual effort to open the scoreboard and give Millennium a 1-zip lead. Some 4 minutes later, Kersha Pollard, yes the same one on the St. Catherine’s Basketball team, fires this right foot that gives Millennium a 2-zip lead to take into intermission. Things fall apart for Caye Caulker in the 2nd half. Sherian Tracy outruns the Island’s defense to launch this right foot splice for the 3-zip lead. 3 minutes later, Tracy does it again and again. Maribel Dominguez can’t come up with the stop and its 4-zip. Sarah Arzu then gets into the act with this nice run and a good finish to make it 5-nil. Kersha Pollard comes back for more by out-running Angie Luna to make it 6 to nothing. Sherian Tracy becomes providers for Kaya Cattouse with this check pass and Cattouse gets on to the scoreboard to make it 7-zip. And it’s Kersha Pollard with the hat trick when she smacks the pill into net to seal the 8-zip victory and with that Smart Millennium is the Belize District Champs. Kudos girls. We also want to congratulate Lillian Joseph of island Stars who finished with 12 goals to lead the league in scoring.
Meanwhile the Belize City over 40 finals between Kulture Yabra and Plaza was a bit of a let down after last week’s sizzling semi-final round. We’re in the ballgame when Norman Nunez who had an impressive outing sets table for Steve Young and Gellys opens the scoreboard with this cruel grass head burner that beats Valentine Ferguson for the 1-zip lead. Now watch the veteran Tilliman Nunez launch this left foot from long distance that crashes into the net to make it 2-nil. It’s more Nunez when he launches the right foot shot that Ferguson should have handles—he doesn’t and Kulture Yabra takes a 3-zip lead into intermission. Meanwhile we’re fresh into 2nd half when Tilliman triggers this corner kick and finds David McCauley who unleashes a head that gives Kulture Yabra the 4-zip lead. This score holds up to long whistle and Kuture Yabra is champion of the over 40 in 2011. Hey guys when you’re big, you’re large.
In cycling news, the weekend warriors race staged Sunday saw David Madrid of Santino’s win the event while Wolrick Thurton of Truckers finished 2nd and his teammate, Steve Gill, rounds out the top 3 in the 28 mile C class race. In the big 50 mile race, the golden one, Ernest Meighan took the 3 man sprint to the tape to grab top honors and beat two Horizon riders, Vallan Symms and Andrew Brown, in that order. They were clocked at 2 hrs 15 mins 50 secs. The next big road warrior race comes up on January 8th in a race they call the New Years Day Classic. The Real New Years Day Classic sponsored by Krem comes on New Years Day so stay tuned.
Jah over all, I’m James Adderley.
