St Charles College has been one of the dominant schools in KZN basketball over the last two decades and have regularly been ranked in the top 3 nationally.

However, Hilton College under the leadership of basketball director Ayanda Shange, have made a prominent rise in the standings of late. This included a dominant victory at home over the SCC team to start the Stayers’ season in term 4 of 2021.

With exceptional shooting, Hilton were able to beat St Charles College in that Stayers match late last year and signalled their intentions for term 1 in 2022.

Justin Waldman Sports Photography feature photo: St Charles College’s Malachi Prigge was in great form against Hilton College firsts in the SK Arena at Saints on Saturday.

Saints first team basketball head coach Darren Holcomb reports that this past Saturday saw the two teams’ first meeting since and, with limited other sport (especially no cricket) being played due to the inclement weather, the SK Arena at Saints was full of energy.

“With strong crowd support for the home team, St Charles College looked to bounce back.

“The early minutes of the game were uneventful as both teams battled to find their range. Both teams missed opportunities to apply pressure and the game was tightly poised by the end of the first quarter.

 

 

Based on the outcome of the Stayers’ match late last year, Hilton perhaps were favoured to win the game on Saturday, but it was the Saints who made the initial run.

“Behind a variety of different defensive looks, which included zone, man and full-court presses, the Saints were able to assert some dominance and jump out to a fair lead by half-time,” said Darren.

“Although no one player can be singled out for SCC, the defensive team energy was outstanding, and they managed to build more and more pressure on Hilton with their full-court press. This led to several Hilton turnovers and easy baskets for the home team.”

St Charles College managed to extend their lead further in the 3^rd quarter, with their largest points difference being 26 points.

“With confidence high, the Saints fell into a wonderful team rhythm which allowed very few opportunities for Hilton to fight back and the final score was 68-50 in St Charles College’s favour.”

In the other Saints/Hilton basketball matches, Hilton seconds beat Saints 27-12; Hilton thirds won 21-20; Hilton U16A won 26-25; Hilton U15A lost 33-19; Hilton U14A won 19-18.

The U16A and U14A matches, just one point in it, as in the third team match. Gripping stuff for players, coaches and spectators.