BVI Tigers roar in St Thomas!
March Madness VI style lived up to every expectation over the weekend as teams from St Croix, St Thomas and the select BVI Tigers battled it out for bragging rights and Championship glory.
The BVI Tigers rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit to pull out a come from behind victory over Eudora Kean High School, 43-42.
Kimron Telemaque was named Most Outstanding Player after scoring 14 points in the final.
However, as Manager Sharlene Hill commented, “all the guys did really well”.“Glendale Lane did a fantastic job, Liburd turned up big time, Terrique Wattle bounced back from a damaged foot to lead the front. They all stepped up when we needed them and we pulled out the win,” she continued.
The Tigers went all court press in the final seconds to secure the victory.“It was a little tense, but we came back up and in the last couple of seconds I got the important rebound,” said Romain Minott.
“We were down, went man for man, it was great coaching from Wattley and Simmonds. Offense win games but defense wins championships,” said J’Moi Liburd.
Tahj Malone was more philosophical. “I had a prayer the night before the final,” he said. “We were down, but, you know what, we had to win this game to make the BVI proud.”
If the final itself was a nerve jangling finale then the Tigers must have been a bag of nerves after the first game and Coach Maurice Wattley agreed that was certainly the case and admitted that just getting to the championship game epitomized the fighting spirit instilled within the team.
“We are feeling great, the guys had a game plan, but we were down and soon had to resort to plan “B”. We kept our composure and slowly crept back into the game to win.”
On Friday March 30, 2012, the Tigers had lost by 3 points to Central High School (31-28) and on Saturday March 31, they had to win by more than four points against Cancryn High School to progress.
“We got the lead and kept it to win by six, 37-31,” stated Wattley.
The semi final was an equally close affair, with the Tigers beating Woodson 27-24.Wattley wouldn’t single out anyone for special mention, instead praising all the players, but Terrique was injured for the first game. He decided he had to play in the important Saturday game and all the players contributed to the victory.
The players would have learnt from the experience and Wattley went on to thank the coaching staff, the manager and the parents who came to support either in person or via telephone updates on the scores.
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