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Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesBoy Dem Eliminate Hoyas, 76-68

Boy Dem Eliminate Hoyas, 76-68

And then there were two! The New Breed Basketball Association finals were set on Monday when the defending champions, Boys Dem, mounted a fourth-quarter comeback to defeat a ready-to-play Hoyas squad, 76-68, at the Ronald Charles Gymnasium on the Central High Campus. The champs will meet the mighty Kings in the best-of-five finals beginning Wednesday.

The veteran Hoyas left it all out on the floor Monday, but it just wasn’t enough against the team which seems to be shaping up as the next St. Croix summer league dynasty.

After an embarrassing 51-point loss in the opening game of their playoff series against Boy’s Dem, the Hoyas came out on Monday looking to redeem themselves and, for three quarters, they looked like they might just do that.

They made sure that the league’s best three-point shooting team did not get many open looks from beyond the arc after being burned by 17 three-pointers in game one.

The score was knotted at 22 after one quarter but the Hoyas looked to be going the better of the two teams.

Their good play continued in the second quarter when Karl John caught fire, scoring 11 points in the period that propelled his team to a four-point lead at the half, 41-37.

The Hoyas continued their motivated play early in the third quarter and enjoyed leads by as much as 10 points, but slowly the defending champs began to wear down their older rivals. The Hoyas lead was still six points at the end of three, mostly as a result of the eight points scored by point guard Eddie Castillo in that period.

The Hoyas would continue to battle in the fourth but when Castillo picked up his fifth foul, the writing was much clearer on the wall. Boys Dem, with a balanced attack highlighted by seven points apiece from Salim Ross and Zomari Swanston, would then go on to outscore the old warriors 26-12 in the fourth period to complete their comeback victory, 76-68, and earn a berth in the finals against the Kings.

Boys Dem was led offensively by Wilson Ferrance who finished with a team-high 18 points, Ross and Rasheed Swanston netted 16 points apiece, Amadeus Derweer had 14 points and 12 boards, and Zomari Swanston contributed 12 points and 11 boards to the winning cause.

The Hoyas were led by Karl John who finished with a game-high 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, Castillo had 16 points, Warren Christian 15 and Omari Applewaite finished with 12. The Hoyas’ Kurt John did not put up his usual numbers offensively but was a monster on the boards, hauling down a game-high 24 rebounds

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