A YORK school came within one basket of reaching the final of the prestigious English Schools Basketball Competition.

All Saints RC had led 33-19 in the third quarter of their semi-final against North Manchester High School but were eventually beaten 53-51 despite a late all-out assault.

"We were well ahead in the third quarter but they came back very strongly," said teacher and coach Tony Teasdale.

"One of their boys scored three three-pointers on the trot and that helped turned the tables. Our lead was whittled away and they took the lead in the last quarter."

Four points down with 40 seconds to go, All Saints called a time-out and agreed a plan of attack, but it proved unsuccessful.

"We scored to get within two points, and had arranged to go full court press and we actually stole the ball with 18 seconds to go," said Teasdale.

"We got a shot in but it was off-balance and we didn't score."

North Manchester now meet either Notre Dame High or London rivals European Community School in the final over two legs.

Teasdale added: "We travelled away in every round so we thought that if we got to the final we would be able to put on a wonderful finale. But we just did not play well.

"The most disappointing thing was that in the previous round the team we played from Birmingham were a better equipped outfit and had an England international, and we beat them. Really we should have run a lot of points in against Manchester - we should be hitting the high 80s - but we did not.

"Sometimes teams don't perform as well as they can and on this occasion we were 80 per cent the team we could have been in such an important game."

Archbishop Holgate School in York gained revenge over Sherburn High School to become York and Selby under-13s basketball champions.

Sherburn had pipped Archbishop's to the league title, with their narrow 42-40 victory in the sides' clash just before Christmas proving decisive in the final standings.

However, with both teams qualifying for the competition play-offs and winning their respective semi-finals, they met again in the overall final. And the York outfit came from behind in the final two minutes to win 54-48.

Archbishops dominated the first ten minutes through Ben Brannigan, Tamin Sherif, Lawrie Himsworth, Adam Birbeck and James Ravenhall, and they established a commanding lead with the help of starting benchmen Richard Cockram, Jon Bowley, Michael Scaife, Jon Flint and Daniel Markwick.

However, Sherburn began to score more freely in the second half as Archbishops' efforts took their toll, and they took the lead for the first time in the match with just two minutes remaining.

But Archbishops regained control in the last minute to score the crucial baskets and win by six points.

Updated: 12:26 Wednesday, March 28, 2001