Ad­vanced Ge­net­ics emerged the cham­pi­on of the Men's 21 and Un­der Di­vi­sion in the "Hoop it Up II" Youth Bas­ket­ball Ex­trav­a­gan­za host­ed by the South Zone Bas­ket­ball Com­mis­sion (SZBC) at the South­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Pleas­antville, San Fer­nan­do, last week.

The Ad­vanced Ge­net­ics team was one of four teams crowned on the week­end in the fi­nal day of ac­tion on Sat­ur­day. The cham­pi­on got the bet­ter of the Point Fortin Vet­er­ans Bas­ket­ball Acad­e­my (PFVB­BA), 31-23, in the ti­tle match.

In the Boys' 17 and Un­der Di­vi­sion, Spar­tans edged Club En­ter­prise 32-30 in their fi­nal. In the girls' ver­sion of the com­pe­ti­tion, Club En­ter­prise eased past Mal­oney Pac­ers 32-18.

In the fi­nale of the Boys' 13 and Un­der Di­vi­sion, Roy­al­ty de­feat­ed Mal­oney Pac­ers 23-13 in the com­pe­ti­tion which held its pre­lim­i­nary round on the week­end of Oc­to­ber 19-20.

Or­gan­is­ers of the com­pe­ti­tion, SZBC ex­tend­ed ap­pre­ci­a­tion through its vice-chair­man Kern Jack­son for the sup­port of the youth league in a re­lease.

It said: "A heart­felt thanks to all the teams, par­ents, spec­ta­tors, stake­hold­ers and sup­port­ers, who lent their time and/or re­sources to­ward en­sur­ing that the re­cent­ly con­clud­ed "Hoop it Up II" Youth Bas­ket­ball Ex­trav­a­gan­za, was a suc­cess.

"Based up­on the feed­back re­ceived, we are con­fi­dent, with your con­tin­ued sup­port, that the game will not just at­tain, but ex­ceed all the ex­pec­ta­tions set by our pre­de­ces­sors.

"To the coach­es and train­ers, we must con­grat­u­late you on the mag­nif­i­cent job ac­com­plished thus far, as the skill lev­el of the play­ers con­tin­ues to im­prove, with each out­ing. The pas­sion for the sport was on full dis­play through­out the three-day event. Fur­ther, the re­quired dis­ci­pline, at­ten­tion to de­tail, fo­cus and ex­e­cu­tion por­trayed, through­out each of the age cat­e­gories, was tru­ly ad­mirable.

"To the Ref­er­ees and Ta­ble Of­fi­cials, sin­cere thanks are ex­tend­ed to you, for the tire­less ef­fort and ded­i­ca­tion you en­gage each game card­ed. Your role and con­tin­ued com­mit­ment is crit­i­cal to lift­ing the sport to high­er heights.

"In clos­ing, we look for­ward to work­ing with you all, as we de­vel­op and ex­e­cute a path­way, through a strate­gic fo­cus, that will re­sult in the holis­tic de­vel­op­ment of our young­sters, through the sport of Bas­ket­ball."

Re­sults

Men's 21 and Un­der

Ad­vanced Ge­net­ics 31 vs PFVB­BA 23

Boys' 17 and Un­der

Spar­tans 32 vs Club En­ter­prise 30

Girls' 17 and Un­der

Club En­ter­prise 32 vs Mal­oney Pac­ers 18

Boys' 13 and Un­der

Roy­al­ty 23 vs Mal­oney Pac­ers 13