St Benedict’s College’s first basketball team has been crowned the winners of the second edition of the Inanda Hoops Classic Challenge hosted by St David’s Marists Inanda on October 20 and 21.
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After falling to Micheal Mount Waldorf in the final of the inaugural event last year, the Bennies team came back to go a perfect 8-0 en route to the championship.
In the group stages, the local team had comfortable wins over St Stithian’s (52-42), St David’s (64-54), KES (45-37), Bishop Bavin (75-24) and development team Alex Academy (51-28).
The Bennies team started to peak going into the knock-out stages of the competition.
The team produced a 61-44 win over the defending champions, Micheal Mount, in the quarter-finals on the back of a stealer 22 point 67 per cent shooting performance from Mpho Msomi and Nathan Ukunda dishing out eight assists.
The 66-44 semi-final win against Sacred Heart saw a balanced scoring attack from the Bennies boys with Pari Kleitman top scoring with 14 points. James Craig chipped in eight points and David Craig, Nathan Ukunda and David Aneimeke, each contributing seven points.
The final was a spectacular affair with captain and tournament Most Valuable Player (MVP) Pari Kleitman scoring 22 points on 67 per cent shooting while dishing out five assists and picking up four steals and three rebounds.
Tournament All-Star Nathan Ukunda produced four rebounds, three steals and two assists to go with his 13 points which included a thunderous dunk to cap off a 6-0 run towards the end of the second quarter to give St Benedict’s momentum going into the second half.
David Aneimeke and David Craig gave great support coming off the bench in the final.
Aneimeke contributed 13 points, five rebounds, two steals and an assist while towering u-15 national team player Craig grabbed a team-high eight rebounds along with seven points and two assists.
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