Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

Ardenne High's Kristopher Yen dives on the court for a ball as he is defended by Kingston College's Kevon Lawman during a second-round match between both teams on Monday, February 11, at the National Stadium court. Ardenne yesterday forced a game three in the U-19 division of the ISSA/KFC Southern Conference High School Basketball League final after beating KC 57-52, while the U-16 team retained its crown after whipping KC 51-28. - Photo by LeVaughn Flynn

Defending champions Ardenne High won their second consecutive lien on the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA)/KFC Under-16 schoolboy basketball Southern Conference Trophy, following an easy 51-28 victory over Kingston College (KC) at the National Stadium yesterday.

Ardenne won the best-of-three series 2-0 following their 50-33 victory in game one last Thursday.

It was a solid evening for Ardenne as their senior team returned to level the best-of-three series 1-1 in the Under-19 competition with a hard-fought 57-52 win over KC.

Adam Fernandez scored a game-high 24 points and had five steals, while Dimitri Gauge, with eight points and nine rebounds, supported well in leading Ardenne to their Under-16 victory.

Kemoy Wright, with 10 points and seven rebounds, led the way for KC.

Ardenne were quick out of the blocks in their Under-19 encounter against the KC as they romped to a 15-9 lead at the end of the first period. However, KC rallied strongly in the second period as they outscored their opponents 15-9 to tie the game 24-24 at half-time.

The third period was exciting and closely contested with both teams trading basket for basket, as KC inched to a 38-37 lead at the end of the quarter.

Came out firing

Ardenne came out firing in the fourth period with Alex Lubsey hitting three unanswered jumpers to put his team up 43-38, a lead they maintained throughout the period as they forced the North Street-based team into making a number of turnovers and blocked several shots.

Lubsey was the leading scorer his team with 18 points and 12 rebounds. He received good support from Daniel Thomas, who got 11 points and five rebounds. Omari Green top-scored for KC with 18 points and 12 rebounds.

"This was a tough game for us today, but I always knew that we could hang on down the stretch once we had the lead going into the fourth period," said Basil Barrett, coach of Ardenne. "We made a few adjustments after our defeat last week after watching the videotape. This was s great performance by my team and you can look for greater things on Wednesday."

Andrew Jackson, KC's coach, said: "Complacency got the better of my team because after we won the first game, the guys thought we had won the competition. You can't win off the court; you've to win on the court. That was our biggest problem today."