Matthew and Vanterpool had led Althea Scatliffe to a zone final win over Joyce Samuel Primary and a championship victory over Cedar School, but now those two schools combined to out-shoot the two architects of the Mighty Scatliffe’s ascendancy to the peak of Primary School sports.

At half time, it was business as usual as the West team were ahead 15 – 12. Matthews, of course, was in the thick of things, organizing his team both offensively and defensively.

However, the East team unleashed a barrage of attacks at the start of the second quarter with Manning in particular unstoppable under the rim. He finished with 9 points and 5 rebounds as the East had turned the half time deficit into a 25-18 lead at the end of the 3rd.

Matthew and Vanterpool did everything they could to reduce the arrears during a frantic and frenzied 4th quarter that had the large crowd on the edge of their seats.

Matthew ended up with 12 points and 10 rebounds but fell agonisingly short of the win as the buzzer sounded.

Vanterpool added 8 points, 10 rebounds and 3 steals. Also on the score sheet for the West were Eduardo Vargas with 4 points and J’Moi Levons with 2. Renrick Massac Jnr. recorded 3 steals and Chaz Fahie 2.

For the victorious East, apart from Manning, Jaden Chalwell scored 8, Braeden Chalwell 5 and Dante Liburd 3. Kalama made 6 rebounds and Kai Turnbull made 3 assists.

The day also included a shoot-out and skills test and although Brian “Bash” Brewley made an unblemished demonstration, he was ineligible.

The Shoot Out Trophy went to D’andre Penn of St Georges and Renrick Massac Jnr. took the Skills award.

Other awards were given to Cedar School as the Best Team, Tony Smithen (Cedar) as Best Coach and Kedrick Matthew as the Best Overall Player.

Zone B champs were Joyce Samuel Primary with Althea Scatliffe Primary Champions of Zone A.

The improvement from last year was extraordinary, commented BD Association member and referee Rennie Phipps. “A lot of the teams that wasn’t that good last year did really well this time around. They have understood and recognized they needed to do certain things to get better. I also say practice makes perfect and it looks like they have been doing that.”

Phipps also made the point that BD Basketball as an organization isn’t standing still but continues to look at ways to develop the sport.

“We have done a lot to really facilitate the programme and the improvement to the quality of play.”

“Bash" and the committee along with himself will be having a meeting shortly to discuss how they can involve the high school in the programme. “We also have plans to introduce a 3 v 3 Jamboree, which teaches the children about space, setting screens and how to move on the court,” Brewley said.

As far as a specific Girls league, those plans are still in the pipeline.

“Hopefully by next year we will have something for them. It’s hard to get the girls to play this type of contact sport, but we are working on it,” the coach disclosed.

Recipients of the other awards that were handed out by the Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, the Hon. Myron Walwyn, the Minister of Communication and Works, the Hon. Mark Vanterpool and also the Hon. Andrew Fahie were as follows: Most Points - Shaqueal Frett of Willard Wheatley Primary Sch Most Rebounds and Blocks - Kyle Penn of WWPS Most Steals - Samuel Gilbert of Alexandrina Maduro Primary Sch Most Assists and Steals - Kedrick Matthew of ASPS

The Starting Five as selected by the Officials were: Point Guard-Jaden Chalwell, Shooting Guard- K’Cei Moses, Small Forward- Kai Turnbull, Power Forward – Daniel Harrigan and Centre – Kyle Penn.