Courts Pacesetters’ championship trio: Royston Siland, Stephon Gillis and Naylon Loncke will spearhead a well-balanced and talented Georgetown line-up in the upcoming inter-association best-of-three basketball tour-nament.
Forwards Siland and Loncke, along with shooting guard Gillis led the Georgetown-based Courts Pacesetters team to a commanding victory over Linden’s Kashif and Shanghai Kings Sunday night in the nation-wide first division tournament.
The three players, scoring in the 20s in that final Sunday night, have been rewarded for their outstanding performance with the call-up to the combined Georgetown team for the Guyana Amateur Basket-ball Federation (GABF) tournament.
President of the GABF, Godwin McPherson told Stabroek Sport last week that the dates set for the George-town Amateur Basket-ball Association (GABA) vs Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) tournament were the 17th, 18th and 24th of this month.
The Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in Georgetown will be the venue for the competition on the 17th and 24th, while the McKenzie Hard Court in Linden will host the event on the 18th in the three-game championship.
Linden will be seeking revenge in the inter-association tournament after falling Sunday night to a Georgetown-based team for the first time in two years. A Georgetown team last defeated a Linden team in a final in 2005.
President of the LABA, Colin Aaron told Stabroek Sport over the weekend that the association was awaiting the completion of Sunday night’s final before it released the Linden team for the tournament.
However, George-town has already named 17 players but according to the team’s head coach, Robert ‘Bobby’ Cadogan, only 15 players would make the final roster while two would be omitted.
“We selected 17 players but we will shortlist 15 players for the final team. The players selected are very creative and they have bee putting in their lot,” Cadogan said.
The GABA 2006 Coach of the Year, Phillip ‘One Foot’ George along with Mark Agard and Lugard Mohan will assist the Courts Pacesetters’ coach with his responsibilities with the male and female Georgetown teams.
Georgetown has also named its female team for the event that gets underway next weekend. Cadogan said that the tournament was geared to give the GABF selection panel an opportunity to look at players for Guyana’s CARICOM national team.
The move to host the tournament that will be immediately followed by a GABF national club championship is an attempt to fine tune the national team for the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championship in Puerto Rico in August.
Ravens’ star guard and experienced national point guard, Darcel Harris along with team mates, shooting guard Kevin Lawrence and forward Damian Liverpool have been called to the Georgetown contingent.
Nets’ centre Fabian Johnson, forwards Triston Tulloch and Sheldon Howell have also been rewarded for their performance over the last six months. Big guy Dane Kendall is the lone player named from Bounty Colts.
Beepat’s Scorpion was awarded the most spots in the team with four players coming into the 17-man squad. Centres Carl Jackman and Darren Thomas along with guards Darren Gordon and Kester Gomes are the players named from Scorpion.
Utility point guard from Pepsi Sonics, Ryan Melville and forward Richard Braithwaite along with Maccabees’ forward Bevan Gordon were called to the side.
Cadogan said it best when he noted that the 15 players who would comprise the final team for Georgetown would be very difficult to select as all of those named could hold their own under any circumstance.
“We as coaches will have our hands tied in selecting players for the final 15. We will try to be as balanced as possible so that we don’t have any overlapping,” Cadogan said, referring to the fact that the best players to fill the positions on the court will be selected.
The Georgetown female team named includes Natasha Alder, Amera Alphonso, Sophia Elliot, Kean Andrews, Rashawna Quintin, Delicia Mayers, Latoya Hamilton, Tameke DeRouche, Natolia Primo, Karen Norville, Shaneka Atwell, Laurel Anderson, Candacy Atkins, Natolia Bishop and Michela Burnett.