By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Government Secondary Schools Sports Association’s sudden death playoffs tipped off yesterday at AF Adderley Gym.

The DW Royals and CH Reeves Raptors will face off against each other for the junior boys and girls titles respectively.

CH Reeves, the junior girls’ defending champions, made it look easy in their 36-23 triumph over the fourth seeded AF Adderley Tigers. 

The second seeded DW Davis Royals emerged victorious over the HO Nash Lions 53-31 on their side of the bracket.

In the junior boys’ opening round, the Royals junior boys defeated the fourth seeded AF Adderley Tigers 55-26 to contend for their eighth straight title.

The Raptors also knocked off the SC McPherson Sharks 45-36 to claim the final spot in the junior boys’ finals.

Junior Girls:

Raptors vs Tigers

The defending champions tipped off the junior girls’ matchup with a 16-3 scoring advantage in just the first quarter of play.

National basketball team player Tajhanique Morley once again made it happen for the Raptors. She poured in a game-high 28 points for CH Reeves in the win.

The Tigers only put together six points in the entire first half while the Raptors poured in 24 points on the other end. The score was 24-6 at the halftime mark.

The Raptors did most of their heavy lifting in the first half to render the fourth seed helpless in the sudden death playoffs. Head coach Varel Davis spoke about what it means to see the team return to the finals for the third consecutive year. “I am pleased with the win today. We had a game plan because we know AF Adderley is a good team and have improved year by year. I knew that they were not gonna be an easy team…so hats off to my girls. I am pleased with the performance of my girls and now we have to go back and practice for the championships,” she said.

Milleka Ferguson and Lashawna White finished with 7 points apiece for the Tigers in the elimination game.

The Raptors will now meet the DW Davis Royals in the junior girls finals.

Coach Davis said the team’s ultimate goal is to defend their junior girls title.

Royals vs Lions

The Royals thwarted any chance of the Lions making a return to the junior girls finals.

Head coach Shakira Farrington talked about how good it felt to have the team advance to the championship round.

“We have been working hard and practicing hard all year. We knew once we did our diamond defence and worked on our 2-3 defence that we were gonna come out with the win,” she said.

DW Davis ran ahead with a 18-10 lead in the opening quarter before closing out the first period on top 25-13.

The Royals got a good chunk of their scoring from Makia Bowles, who scored 16 of her game-high 28 points in the first quarter.

In the second period the victors kept the momentum going against the Lions. The team extended the deficit to 17 (30-13) with 3:54 remaining in the half.

They went into the intermission with a comfortable 34-19 advantage.

DW Davis went up by as much as 20 points (40-20) in the period and the rest was history.

Jada Frazer, of HO Nash, paced the Lions in scoring with 24 points.

Coach Farrington said the team will work on some strategies to be ready for the finals against the defending champions.

Junior Boys

Royals vs Tigers

The home court advantage did not mean much for the Tigers in their junior boys matchup against the defending champions.

AF Adderley played the Royals close in the first quarter thanks to some good ball movement to trail by just 5 (14-9) after one.

The second period was a different story as the Royals turned up the intensity with a half court press that the Tigers were unable to solve the rest of the way.

Coach Mark Hanna discussed the team’s strategy in the blowout victory.

“I had to make some adjustments from the season because it was a much closer game in the season. In this game earlier, I dropped back in the half court press and that negated his full court press so we had a chance to really move and have some fun,” he said.

DW Davis throttled ahead 30-13 in the second quarter with less than three minutes to go.

At the halftime break it was all Royals, 34-16.

The defending champions’ stingy defence left the Tigers scoreless in the third quarter to outscore them 21-11 in the second half.

Joevardo Wright torched the Tigers defence for a game-high 23 points.

Ken Cooper pitched in 6 points for AF Adderley.

The Royals will be in pursuit of their eight straight championship in a battle against the Raptors.

Coach Hanna outlined the focus going into the final round. 

“Just knowing who they are, their defences, scouting report and go in there be ourselves press and run. It is going to be tough,” he said.

Sharks vs Raptors

The Raptors’ junior boys witnessed the girls book a spot in the finals earlier in the evening and decided to do the same.

Coach Thurman Johnson was overjoyed about the junior boys’ first finals berth in a few years.

“It feels awesome. I want to thank God for allowing us to get here because last year we didn’t win any games. I told the guys don’t give up, we worked over the summer and I had them training when school opened in September and it paid off,” he said.

The team stormed ahead with an 18-10 run in the second period before pulling away with a 21-15 lead at halftime.

The Sharks responded in the third quarter after Brent McPhee canned a three to shave the deficit to 1 (25-24) with 2:34 remaining in the third.

CH Reeves were still in charge of the game 27-26 despite a surge by the Sharks.

Coach Johnson shared his message to the team in crunchtime.

“They fell down on defence. When you fall down on defence the other team always is gonna look at those weaknesses and take advantage of them. I called a timeout and told them ‘guys we gotta step up on defence and start doing the things we taught you guys to do,” he said.

The Sharks came up short in the clutch moments, while the Raptors drained big shots.

Tristan Rahming, of CH Reeves, hit a go-ahead layup with 1:15 to go to pull away 43-34.

He was also the team’s leading scorer with 22 points.

The Raptors managed to create a double digit separation (45-34) late in the fourth to signal the end of the Sharks’ postseason run.

Timothy Sands produced a game-high 13 points for the Sharks. 

The Raptors will now face an uphill battle against the title hungry defending champions.

The senior division games of the GSSSA sudden death playoffs will begin at 4pm today at the AF Adderley Gymnasium.