LTI point guard Donnel Benjamin on one of the occasion that he blew past GTI’s Kevin Jordan with a stutter-step step during LTI’s 47-45 win at the Cliff Anderson Sports in the NSC Pepsi National Schools’ Basketball Festival yesterday. (Clairmonte Marcus photo)

LTI strikes back!

By Kiev Chesney

The Linden Technical Institute (LTI) avenged their defeat at the hands of the Georgetown Technical Institute (GTI) on Monday with a 47-45 win over their old rivals in the group final of the National Sports Commission/Pepsi National Schools Basketball Festival yesterday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.

Although GTI won the first encounter, they were eliminated as the second encounter was the group final after the other two schools in the group failed to show.

Knowing the importance of the game, Orin ‘Six head’ Rose forgot about his miserable shooting performance in game one and came out steaming to score LTI’s first eight points including two three-pointers.

GTI would not stay far behind and despite many scoring droughts they rallied to trail by just two (25-27) at halftime.

Both teams fought hard in the second half and fans were biting their nails and pulling out their hair for the second straight day as the game once again went down to the last few seconds.

GTI overcame a five-point deficit and took a 45-41 lead with one minute remaining in the game, but LTI would not go away.

The Lindeners went on a 6-0 run to tie the game 45-45 before Travis Leitch put the icing on the cake with a clutch turn around jumper to secure LTI’s place in the next round.

Rose led all scorers with 12 points while Devon Wills added 11 and Leitch nine, five of which came with under 40 seconds remaining.

Colwin Nurse and Courtney Hinds scored 11 points each for GTI.

President’s College (PC) was the other team which turned around its opening day misfortune as they too recorded a dramatic one-point upset against St. John’s College.

Underdogs PC defeated St John’s 41-40 with their star point guard Richard Mohandatt scoring 22 points.
Mohandatt also dished numerous assists which Willon Cameron mostly benefited from to end with 11 points.

Bishops’ High School (BHS) was not prepared for the offensively explosive Stravin Ettiene who scored 23 points for Wismar Christianburg and went down 30-46. Clive Wilson led the way for with 16 points for BHS but with limited productivity from their guards they could not get back into the game after trailing 20-21 at the half. Defending champions Kwakwani blew away St Rose’s High 65-19 led by the 20-point performance of Shelroy Thomas and 12 points from Leron La Fleur.