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HomeNewsArchivesCaribs Smoke Barracudas 75-68 to Win St. Croix Championship

Caribs Smoke Barracudas 75-68 to Win St. Croix Championship

March 18, 2007 — A worried look never crossed his face. The fact that the Educational Complex Barracudas, the team his Central High Caribs were facing, had beaten them twice during the season did not seem to matter.
Not even when his team went down 7-0 — failing to score in the first four minutes of the game — did concern cross the face of Alvan Jarvis, coach of the Central High School Caribs. Jarvis knew that his usually slow-starting Caribs would get back in the game before it was over.
The underdog Caribs rallied from their early deficit with two of their top three seniors showing the way. A team-high 26 points came from center Craig "Big Smooth" Williams, supplemented by the down-the-stretch free-throw shooting of guard Rashawn Williams. The Caribs marched onto the Barracudas' home court and outlasted them 72-68 to win the St. Croix Interscholastic Basketball Championship.
"Playing on their floor, I know that they were going to come with a lot of energy to start the game," Jarvis said. "Our thing was to just weather their fast early start by sticking with our game plan. It was a great game, but I think our overall depth, the fact that our big men stayed out of foul trouble and the free-throw shooting of Rashawn down the stretch was the difference in the game."
It was basketball at its best in the Educational Complex Gymnasium, with loud, boisterous fans cheering on their teams and the competing squads giving fans their money’s worth in one of the most exciting high-school championship games in recent years. Not until the latter stages of the game was the outcome decided. It was like two evenly matched heavyweight fighters slugging it out in the middle of the ring, neither giving an inch, until one blinked and got caught with a knockout punch to end the fight.
The Caribs threw that punch.
A fast, energetic start by the Barracudas appeared to catch the Caribs a little flat-footed, giving the Barracudas a 7-0 lead midway through the first quarter. The Caribs didn't hit their first basket until the 4:30 mark, when "Big Smooth" Williams scored on a put-back. Another two points by Clion Williams and the Caribs cut the lead to three at 7-4. An 8-6 run by the Barracudas to close the quarter gave them a five point lead at 15-10.
The Caribs opened the second quarter with a 4-0 run that brought them to within one at 15-14. But then came a rare four-point play by the Barracudas' Keith Paul, who got fouled on a three-pointer, pushing the lead back to five at 19-14. Five straight by the Caribs' Clion Williams on a three-pointer and deuce tied the game at 19 in the fast-paced contest.
A turnover by the home team and a turnaround jumper by "Big Smooth" Williams gave the Caribs their first lead at 21-19. That lead was short-lived, however, as the Barracudas' Jamari Applewaite — who had a monster second quarter with 13 points — scored the next five points to give the lead back to his team at 24-21. The Caribs then went on an 18-10 run and led 39-34 with 12 seconds left in the half. Applewaite managed a steal and a three just inside the half-court line as time expired, bringing the Barracudas to within two at 39-37 going into the locker room.
The Barracudas retook the lead at 46-43 with an 8-4 run to start the third quarter, highlighted by six points from Applewaite. From then on, the third period turned into a game of runs. The Caribs scored four straight to take a 47-46 lead; a six-point run by the Barracudas gave the lead right back to them at 52-47. The third quarter ended knotted at 54 after a driving layup by Central’s Omari Eastman at the buzzer.
The senior leadership of the Caribs really proved to be the difference in the fourth quarter as Craig and Rashawn Williams — who had eight and seven points in the fourth, respectively — guided their team to the championship with their steady play. "Big Smooth" Williams controlled the boards defensively, limiting the Barracudas to one-and-done on offense. Rashawn, on the other hand, was almost perfect from the penalty stripe, hitting seven of eight free throws in the period.
An 8-0 run to start the fourth gave the Caribs the lead at 62-54. The Barracudas then went on an 8-2 run and, after a driving layup by Applewaite, found themselves down two points at 64-62. It was 68-62 with 3:32 left in the game, and at that point it still looked like the game would go right down to the wire.
Unfortunately for the Barracudas, their big man in the middle, Wilson Ferrance, picked up his fifth foul. It was all downhill from there for the Barracudas. The Caribs capitalized on his absence right away, going to "Big Smooth" Williams down low on every possession. They went on a 7-1 run to put the game away, climbing to a double-digit lead at 75-63 with 1:35 left.
The only thing that slowed the outcome from there was a Gatorade bath Jarvis got from his players, delaying the conclusion of the game for a few minutes while the court was being cleaned up. Five garbage-time points by the Barracudas set the final score at 75-68.
"It was a great game and my player played their hearts out, but we missed too many free throws," said Barracudas Coach Dean Heywood. "We should not miss so many free throws on our home court, but I know my players left everything they had out there tonight."
The Caribs were led by "Big Smooth" Williams' 26 points and 12 by Rashawn Williams. Three other players chipped in with eight points each.
For the Barracudas it was mostly Applewaite, who accounted for nearly half of his team's points with a game-high 31.
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