The Georgetown Masters’ team went down to the youthful Maccabees basketball team 62-74 on Saturday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall as the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association’s (GABA) Bryden’s Second Division League competition got underway.
The Georgetown Masters team included Lugard Mohan and Kelvin Simon who, together, combined to lead the Masters to a 25-20 first quarter lead.
Simon was effective in the rebounds department and scored on many second attempts while Mohan orchestrated a controlled offensive attack.
However, Maccabees, led by Hodiah Stuart and his brother K’naniel, battled to score evenly with the Masters and managed to cut back the deficit only two points (39-41) at halftime.
In the second half, however, the Masters missed easy shots from close range while the Maccabees players were in full flight, led by the consistent Stuart and new acquisition Desmond Chin.
Chin’s jump shots were as smooth as butter in the second half and he equalled teammate Stuart, for the game-high score of 18 points.
Maccabees’ K’naniel Stuart finished with 16 points while Mohan and Simon contributed 16 and 13 points respectively for the Masters.
In the first game of the evening the tenacious defence of the Pepsi Sonics players, catapulted the team to a convincing 66-51 victory over the Bounty Farm Colts.
Pepsi Sonics’ coach Mark Agard, instituted a two-three, zone defensive set early, which reduced the productivity in the low post.
In the low scoring first half, Pepsi Sonics held a 24-18 lead as Colts struggled to make adjustments in their offence.
Midway in the third quarter, Colts made some changes in their line up and the result was 9-0 run, punctuated by a Triston Lake three-pointer which tied the scores at 30-30 with 1:57s remaining in the period. In the fourth quarter, however, Pepsi Sonics saw results from the full court press that was enforced in the third quarter and jumped out to a 10-point lead which was never relinquished.
Trevor Smith was clutch in the fourth quarter and ended with a team high of 13 points for Pepsi Sonics while Ryan Melville and Jason Squires scored nine and eight points respectively. Onica Fraser had a game high of 18 points for the Colts while his teammate Floyd Arthur managed to add seven points.
The Bryden’s Second Division league will continue on Wednesday with Eagles against the junior national team followed by Ravens versus Beepat Scorpions and Nets against Courts Pacesetters.
