The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Sts Francis and Joseph School Shockers boys and girls advanced to a 1-0 series lead after game one of the Catholic Board of Education Primary Schools Championships yesterday at Loyola Hall.

The girls landed the first blow against the Xavier’s Lower School Giants with a 14-9 victory.

The Shockers’ boys won a competitive game 21-13 against the Giants to emerge one step closer to the championship trophy and remain undefeated.

Boys

The Shockers and Giants both struggled with offence in the opening quarter. The undefeated team was locked at three apiece with the Giants.

The Giants then split a pair of free throws at the charity stripe to change the score to 4-3.

They had the Shockers on the ropes as they went into the halftime break leading 6-3. However, the tides turned in the second half where the Shockers got out to a 7-1 run after tying the score at six to lead the game 13-7.

After this juncture in the game, the Giants were unable to regain their footing in the contest and went down 0-1 in the best-of-three championships series.

Emery Sturrup, who poured in 10 points in the last game, scored 13 of the Shockers’ 21 total points in the contest.

Nkomo Ferguson, head coach of the Shockers, shared the difference between the first and second half for his team in game one.

“We were sluggish in the first half.

“Our point guard got three early fouls so we had to sit him out for a whole quarter but the secondary team stepped up and in the third quarter we got our starting five back in the game and they closed it out,” Ferguson said.

With a chance to sweep the series today, the head coach is confident in the team’s ability to get it done.

“We are planning on closing it out tomorrow and that’s it,” the head coach said.

Girls

Grace Smith led the way for the Shockers with a game-high eight points en route to a game one win.

The Shockers got on the scoreboard early and charged out to a 7-3 advantage. The Giants got within three to make the score 10-7 but the Shockers never let up and secured the first victory of the series.

Coach Ferguson was pleased with the team’s chemistry and execution with game one now in the books. “They played well today. We beat them convincingly and let them know that we are here and we basically came to win. “Everybody did their job and handled their assignments today,” he said.

He added that the expectations are the same for both teams to close out their respective championship series today at Loyola Hall.

Game two of the Catholic Board of Education Primary Schools championships begins at 3:45pm.