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The Blue Barracudas are into the final of the PASA ‘People’s Tournament’ Youth Charity final.

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Kaliel Austin of the Blue Barracudas defends Joshav Grant of the Purple Wildies.

Barracudas to compete against Bumblebees in People’s Tourney final

The Blue Barracudas and Yellow Bumblebees will face each other for the glory in the final of the “People’s Tournament” after they each won their respective semi-final bouts at the St. Michael School court on Saturday evening.

The Barracudas took a bite out of the Purple Wildies in the first semi-final 62-51 with Kaliel Austin top scoring with 20 points including 3 treys. His support came from Kurt Lambert with 13 and Justin Bramao with 10. The Barracudas led at the half by 14, 37-23 and extended that lead to 50-31 by the end of the third.

Kenyon Connell put up six points in the fourth for the Wildies along with 5 from Tré Ward to mount a 20 point run. Unfortunately it was not enough to take the win but Ward finished with a team high 17 points. The Wildies were without two of their best players, Simeon Maynard and Godfrey July and that was definitely a factor in the loss.

The second game was an exciting one with the Green Grasshoppers trying to take out the unbeaten Yellow Bumblebees. The Bumblebees led 16-14 after one quarter and jumped out to an eight-point lead during the second. The hoppers were resilient however and cut the deficit back to one basket by the end of the half, down 2, 33-31. The third quarter was a dicey one for two reasons. There were a few missed calls by the referees which halted the flow of the Grasshoppers, at a moment in time where the momentum was in their flavour and they could have taken the lead. 

The other issue was a bad decision by Grasshopper coach Junior Wilson to sit his top players Anthony Maynard and Primus Walrond, each with three fouls with two minutes remaining in the period. The hoppers were down three when the two sat and Bumblebee Deroni Hurley took advantage and lit up the court for six quick points, sparking Dijon Hunte to eight and Adriel Brathwaite to seven.

By the time Walrond and Maynard came back into the game to start the fourth, the Grasshoppers were down 58-49. Hurley continued to sting the hoppers off the court, no matter the defender in front of him scoring 11 points in the fourth. All the while the Hoppers were losing players. Firstly Walrond fouled out after an intentional foul and two minutes later Maynard followed him to the bench, out with five fouls as well. That only left Kyrone Alexander to put up a fight against the bees but even his night high 34 points could not save his side, as they went down 75-65.

Hurley scored 21 points while Chikosi Boardi had 19 and Brathwaite 18 to see the Bees into the final against the Barracudas. (AS)

 

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