The in­au­gur­al RBC Roy­al Slam Col­lege’s Bas­ket­ball Tour­na­ment group stage con­clud­ed this past week­end (Oc­to­ber 25-26) with thrilling ac­tion, dra­mat­ic vic­to­ries, and dom­i­nant in­di­vid­ual per­for­mances, set­ting the stage for an ex­plo­sive semi­fi­nal round.

Fa­ti­ma Col­lege stamped its au­thor­i­ty on Group A, while St Mary’s Col­lege locked down Group B, con­firm­ing the fi­nal four con­tenders at the East­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sport­ing Are­na in ​Tacarigua.

QRC, St Mary’s punch tick­ets

​In a must-win sit­u­a­tion for both teams in Group A, Queens Roy­al Col­lege (QRC) de­liv­ered, se­cur­ing their spot in the next round with a con­vinc­ing 85-56 vic­to­ry over Holy Cross Col­lege. QRC’s cap­tain, Tal­ib Daniel, was in­stru­men­tal once again, post­ing a com­mand­ing dou­ble-dou­ble with 35 points, 13 re­bounds, and three blocks. Daniel re­ceived strong sup­port from Ke­vani Boatswain (16 points, 7 re­bounds, 5 steals) and Johnathan Ri­ley (15 points, 9 re­bounds, 5 steals).

​Mean­while, in Group B, St Mary’s Col­lege con­tin­ued their un­beat­en streak, se­cur­ing the top seed with an em­phat­ic 96-83 win over St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege. Nko­bi Ince de­liv­ered a mas­ter­class per­for­mance, drop­ping 35 points, 8 re­bounds, and 6 steals, while Zane Pe­ters added a pow­er­ful 31 points. De­spite lead­ing in the first half and re­ceiv­ing im­pres­sive ef­forts from St An­tho­ny’s Amir Bal­go­b­in (33 points) and Jahiem McLeod (29 points), the “Saints” from Fred­er­ick Street proved too strong in the late surge. The vic­to­ry con­firmed St. Mary’s as Group B win­ners, with Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege San Fer­nan­do fin­ish­ing sec­ond and al­so ad­vanc­ing.

Fa­ti­ma makes a state­ment

​The third week­end wrapped up on Sun­day as the fi­nal stand­ings were so­lid­i­fied, high­light­ed by a mas­sive per­for­mance from the Group A lead­ers.

​The evening’s head­line clash saw Fa­ti­ma over­pow­er QRC in a one-sided af­fair, win­ning 112-67 to se­cure the undis­put­ed top spot in Group A.

Fa­ti­ma’s dom­i­nant trio de­liv­ered an­oth­er state­ment per­for­mance: ​William Fran­cis record­ed a spec­tac­u­lar triple-dou­ble with 25 points, 13 re­bounds, and 11 steals, ​Zachary Julien poured in 29 points, 6 re­bounds, and five steals and ​Idri­is Mar­tin added 23 points and eight steals.

De­spite a valiant ef­fort from QRC’s Daniel with 29 points and nine re­bounds, Fa­ti­ma proved too strong from start to fin­ish.

​Holy Cross ends on a high note

​In the ear­li­er Group A ac­tion, Holy Cross Col­lege cruised to a 71-36 vic­to­ry over St Fran­cis Boys Col­lege, earn­ing the brag­ging rights of fin­ish­ing third in the group. Zion Red­wood led the way for Holy Cross with 17 points, eight re­bounds and six steals, giv­ing his team a strong fin­ish to their tour­na­ment run.

​With the group stage com­plete, the top four teams are set to clash in the high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed semi­fi­nals at the same venue on No­vem­ber 8.

Re­sults

Sat­ur­day

QRC 85 (Tal­ib Daniel 35 pts/13 rebs/3 blks, Ke­vani Boatswain 16 pts/7 rebs/5 stls, Johnathan Ri­ley 15 pts/9 rebs/5 stls vs Holy Cross Col­lege 56.

St Mary’s Col­lege 96 (Nko­bi Ince 35 pts/8 rebs/6 stls, Zane Pe­ters 31 pts) vs St An­tho­ny’s Col­lege 83 (Amir Bal­go­b­in 33 pts, Jahiem McLeod 29 pts).

Sun­day

Fa­ti­ma 112 (William Fran­cis 25 pts/13 rebs/11 stls, ​Zachary Julien 29 pts/6 rebs/5 stls, ​Idri­is Mar­tin 23 pts/8 stls) vs QRC 67 (Tal­ib Daniel 29 pts/9 rebs).

Holy Cross Col­lege 71 (Zion Red­wood 17 pts/8 rebs/6 stls) vs St Fran­cis Boys 36.