By Jason Pike
MOBILE, NL – This past week the annual Rule The Court tournament kicked off at Mobile Central High School. Sitting back watching the Mobile Monarch Nines play the Mount Pearl Intermediate Nines, it was easy to see that these teams were severely mismatched. The home town Monarchs quickly put their foot on the throttle and never let it off all game.
This has been a common theme for this particular group of boys from Mount Pearl Intermediate and it begs the question at such a large school why is it such an issue to put together a competitive team? It makes little to no sense to me in the least. When you have the numbers, the obvious advantage is that you have more kids to pick and choose from, but this team from Mount Pearl lacked the size and skill. The far superior and dominant Mobile Monarchs team with the skill and in size advantage walked all over them with a easy 58 to 20 final score.
Beaconsfield versus Brookside.
This game started off interesting with the Beaconsfield Saxons coming out flying in dominant fashion with a quick 10-point lead early on in the game. But it wasn’t long before the Brookside Bulldogs chipped away a little bit at a time and at one point had near on a 20-point lead flipping the script from what had taken place in the first quarter.
Moving into the third quarter the Beaconsfield team failed to put all but two points on scoreboard in a comeback effort. It looked like this turkey was cooked and all was left was to put a fork in it.
But in the second half of the final, after a series of careless turnovers over in less than a minute the Beaconsfield Squad scored multiple baskets and Ecclesius Chilaka with a quick steal provided a show stopping moment with a glamorous slam dunk wowing teammates and opponents to give themselves a 10-point lead. A sloppy and uncoordinated effort by Brookside Bulldogs fell apart and were on able to finish the job in secure a win in a 53 to 43 Beaconsfield victory.
Mobile vs St. Paul’s.
In the history of both of these teams it’s usually a close fought affair. And it’s never a guaranteed victory for either side. It’s usually back and forth over the season with the wins and the losses.
But right from the beginning the Mobile Monarchs were sloppy and before long they were falling further and further behind. Messy turnovers and missed easy shots underneath the basket piled up throughout the game and kept the Monarchs chasing the entire game.
They took a one-point lead for a brief moment before turning the ball over again and allowing the St Paul’s Vipers to throw a few more daggers into the Monarchs and create a spread of 10 points once again.
In the final period the Monarchs drew within three points but turned the ball over three times within a 30 second period. St Paul’s capitalized on every careless turnover. The Monarchs came within seven points of St Paul’s but in the end it was too little too late as the Saint Paul’s Vipers defeated the Mobile Monarchs by a score of 52 To 45.
