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Manchester High dominate rural semis
February 10, 2026
Defending champions Manchester High School sent an early warning to their rivals as both their under-16 and under-19 teams opened their ISSA rural basketball semifinal campaign with emphatic victories at home yesterday
Manchester's under-16 team set the tone with a commanding 67-48 win over Knox College, while the under-19 outfit delivered a dominant 72-32 blowout against Herbert Morrison Technical High (HMTHS) to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three semifinal series.
Winning coach Damon Sullivan said they made use of their height advantage to dominate Herbert Morrison.
"It was not much of a challenge. This is the first time seeing our opponents this year and they were a bit small in size. We used our height to our advantage," Sullivan said. "They play a lot of full-court pressing, which we were properly prepared for as well."
For the U16s, Sullivan pointed out that it was a more competitive game.
"We had to dig very deep today to really get that victory. I think we started okay, and then I think we picked it up in the middle of the game, and we closed the game properly. Good game," he remarked.
Meanwhile, Herbert Morrison's coach Levar Rose admitted that the team fell short of expectations, in what he described as their worst performance of the season.
"We chose the wrong time not to show up, and crumbled. Our opponents displayed that they wanted it more from the first quarter. We didn't have the intensity and it showed," Rose said, citing poor concentration and execution as their main issues.
In the under-19 matchup, the final result was never in question after Manchester took a 20-0 first-quarter lead, before extending the lead to 35-8 at the half. By the end of the third quarter there was no coming back for HMTHS, with Manchester outscoring them 21-9 to rattle up a 56-17 lead.
The defending champions' sizzling performance was led by Shavar Bogle with 15 points, Samuel Smith's 12 points and Oral Daley's 11 points and 19 rebounds. For HMTHS, Joshua Ferguson scored 16 points.
Both Manchester High teams will now look to close out their respective series when action resumes, while Knox College and Herbert Morrison face must-win situations to keep their championship hopes alive.
In another under-19 game, Holmwood Technical High rallied to squeeze out a 75-70 win against Knox College to take the a 1-0 lead in the series.
Holmwood's Melvin Ragoo's scored 30 points, while teammates JA-dan Reid had 18 points and Romeo Smith 16 points. Knox's Marc Anthony-Bennett had 31 points to go with 10 rebounds and teammate Tajay Leslie scored 29 points.
Andrew Brown, coach of Holmwood, said it was a hard-fought game.
"We needed this level of game and competition to prepare for the finals," Brown said.
"We dug deep and stepped up our defence in the fourth quarter, so our offence was much better, so in the end we were victorious," Brown assessed, noting that his team was down by 10 at one point.
"Knox came out strong as we expected so it was not a pretty win. However, a win is a win. We are a great fourth quarter team and once again the team showed character and heart," added Brown.
