Berbice All Stars and East Bank Combined face a tough challenge tonight when the Next Level Entertainment first division basketball tournament bounces off at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Berbice All Stars is scheduled to play runners-up at last year’s tournament, Ravens in the first game while East Bank Combined will play 2006 winners, Kings in the feature game.
The tournament this year will be heated with rivalry as Ravens seek to redeem themselves after self-destructing in the final last year. Former national point guard, Lugard Mohan will man the team’s bench.
Mohan told Stabroek Sport yesterday that despite the short notice given to the team for this year’s tournament, he is impressed with the work the players have managed to put in ahead of the competition tonight.
“I had them going through the paces and I am impressed that with the one-week notice we received, there are noticeable improvements,” Mohan said, adding that he didn’t want to give away too much of the team’s strategy.
The game against Berbice All Stars will be more or less a warm- up game for Ravens unless the team from the ancient county can pull off a major upset. Ravens, however, is very focused ahead of the 2007 tournament.
An area on the court that is of importance to the Ravens is the team’s middle positions; the centre and power forward positions owing to the debarring of Dwayne ‘Sugar’ Roberts from the competition.
The Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) had asked that Roberts not play in the tournament while the federation investigated a matter that resulted in a two-year ban of the high profile player.
Kurt ‘Gypsie’ Elias along with Rudy James and Damian Liverpool will alternately attempt to fill the vacuum Roberts leaves in the team. Shooting guard Kevin Lawrence will lend assistance at the top to national point guard, Darcel Harris.
Mohan also said that it is likely that a few Ravens third division players will make their first division debut tonight. The Ravens must find the right combinations tonight as they attract the brunt of the Georgetown support.
In the second and feature game defending champions, Kings will want to send a strong message from the outset with an impressive win. East Bank, fresh from the annual East Bank tournament will try to thwart the powerhouse.
Kings will have at the helm of their offence, national shooting guard Steve Neils Jr. and forward Marvin Hartman. Abdullah Hamid will control the very deep bench of the national champions.
The winners of tonight’s games will be the first teams to advance to the quarterfinal stage of the win-or-go-home tournament. Jump ball is 6 pm.
