Courts Pacesetters became Guyana’s number-one team when they dethroned Kashif and Shanghai Kings at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall Sunday night to win the Next Level Entertainment nation- wide first division basketball competition.
Pacesetters’ shooting guard Stephon Gillis and senior forward Naylon Loncke turned up the heat to lead the Courts Pacesetters team to a 74-69 win in over-time after regulation time ended in a 65-65 deadlock.
Gillis scored 23 points with five-of-seven shooting from three-point range while Loncke had 20 points. High-flying forward, Royston Siland, scored 24 points while controlling the ‘boards’ for Courts Pacesetters .
Kings’ center Alwyn Wilson ended with 22 points while guard Marvin Hartman and centre Jason Alonzo, finished with 21 and 16 points respectively.
The last ten minutes of the game, including the five minute over-time period, provided the packed Sports Hall with enough entertainment as the game tilted one way and then the other.
Gillis nailed a huge three-point shot, his last of the game, (his fifth) to put the Courts unit up 57-43 in the fourth-quarter but Hartman and Abdullah `Zico’ Hamid, responded with two consecutive `treys’ to narrow the lead to eight (59 – 51).
Hartman’s heroics late in the fourth-quarter continued to erode Pacesetters’ lead. A put-back from Wilson with 50 seconds on the clock brought the Kings team to within one, as Pacesetters suffered a few jitters coming down the homestretch. With 30 seconds on the clock in regulation time, Devon Cameron put Pacesettres’ back up (65-62) from the free-throw line but an intercepted inbounds pass went off the feet of Loncke and gave possession to Kings with 18.7 seconds on the clock. Kings scored on possession and Hamid was given an opportunity to win the game for Kings on the free throw line with three split seconds remaining in regulation tme. That chance brought some real drama into the Sports Hall as the Georgetown fans erupted.
Hamid made one of two free throws to knot the score and send the game into OT.
The Georgetown fans breathed a sigh of relief.
The two teams traded points early in over-time but Pacesetters moved ahead 72-67 with two free throws and an ally-hoop dunk from Loncke with 1:19s on the clock remaining in over-time and an assist from Loncke to Cameron put the icing on the cake for the George-town-based team.
Kings’ offense suffered under the Pacesetters’ man-to-man pressure defense late in the final minute of over-time. Kings scored a mere four points compared to Pacesetters’ nine points.
Head-coach of the Pacesetters team, Robert ‘Bobby’ Cadogan told Stabroek Sport yesterday that he told the team to compose itself and play aggressive during those times in the game when the title was slipping away.
“I said that to them from jump street: compose yourself and be aggressive,” he recalled, adding that the team recognised its deficiency in the height department and decided to play man-to-man defense all night.
Pacesetters went into the game without the services of starting centre Horace Hodges and starting guard, Stephon ‘Penny’ Henry.
“If you are a smaller team, you have to make up on steals, quickness and athleticism. We did not allow them to play as they are accustomed to playing in their half of the court,” Cadogan explained.
Courts won $250, 000 for the feat while Kings settled for the $100,000 second place prize. Nets defeated Beepat’s Scorpions 66-62 to claim the $50,000 third place award in the first game Sunday night.
Guard Triston Tulloch scored 21 points for Nets in that game while Mortimer Williams, Fabian Johnson and Sheldon Howell scored 14, 12 and 10 points respectively.
Kester Gomes, Carl Jackman and Darren Thomas top scored for Scorpions with 15, 14 and 13 points respectively. The presentation ceremony is set for later this week where the best defender, best shooter and most valuable player awards will be distributed.
