Feb. 22, 2007 — For one half Wednesday afternoon, Seventh Day Adventist looked as if they would win their first game of the season, but, unfortunately for them, the game had two halves.
SDA totally outplayed the Central High Caribs' B team for the first 30 minutes at the Central High gymnasium. Although they fought valiantly to the end, SDA simply could not match the Caribs' intensity in the second half, going down 75-69. For the Caribs, it was a matter of not wanting to be the first team to lose to the upstart SDA school, which shows improvement every time out though winless on the season.
Despite coming out on the winning end, Carib's B Coach Keith "Zoro" Swanson was upset with his team's performance.
"You know, we really do not get much practice time together, but that would have been no excuse," he said. "These guys just do not listen. You tell them one thing, and they go and do something else. This game should not have been as close as this tonight; they just did not listen to what I was trying to tell them during the game."
Both teams started fast, but the way that SDA attacked the basket from the onset surprised the Caribs. Opening the game with a man-to-man defense, they had no answer for stopping the SDA point guard, Lorton Simon, who attacked the basket every time he touched the ball in the opening quarter. When he did not score, he dished off to a teammate for an easy basket. But Sharkin Harley kept the Caribs in the game with nine first-quarter points. At the end of the first period only one point separated the teams, with SDA up 16-15.
Simon really exploded in the second quarter, torching the Caribs for 14 points. His team looked primed to blow the Caribs off the floor, leading by as many as 10 points at one time. They led 34-24 as the half wound down, but the Caribs — who were hearing it from their fans — closed with an 8-2 run to get to within two points at 36-34 heading into the locker room.
The Caribs started the second half in a zone defense to stop the dribble penetration by Simon, and it worked right off the bat. They quickly erased the two-point deficit and took command of the game in the third quarter. Led by strong third-quarter performances by Allen Burke and Eddison Peters, who had nine and eight points respectively in the period, the Caribs managed to close out the third quarter with an eight-point lead at 57-49. It could have been much worse for SDA if not for Kamuel Browne's 13 points in the third, which kept his team within striking distance.
Fatigue took hold of both teams in the fourth quarter, but SDA still frantically tried to cut into the Caribs' lead. They would close to within four at 73-69 after a three by Simon with 56 seconds left in the game, but the Caribs' defense was able to prevent any more scoring the rest of the way.
The Caribs had a balanced attack, led by Burke with 20 points, Harley with 18 and Peters with 14. Two Caribs finished with nine points. SDA was led by a game-high 26 points from Simon, while teammate Browne finished with 21 points.
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