By Rawle Toney
The Nets Basketball club defeated the Courts Pacesetters 34-16 to be crowned the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) Kevin Worrell Memorial five-a-side knockout champions when the tournament was contested Saturday evening at the Burnham Basketball Court.
It was a wonderful day of basketball as the family of former Courts Pacesetters player Kevin Worrell came out in their numbers in memory of the player who lost his life two weeks ago playing at the same venue.
The day began with players and spectators observing a moment of silence for the fallen player.
Eleven teams then battled for the top prize of $50,000, trophies and other incentives donated by Worrell’s mother, Rhonda Johnson and other family members.
It was a keen battle to arrive at the two finalists as the other teams in the tournament all had their eyes set on the trophies and prizes.
In the final, though, Pacesetters seemed a bit tired since they had only five minutes earlier finished playing their semi-final match against a young Full Force team which went into over time.
Nets, on the other hand, had a comfortable win against Bounty Colts in their semi- final match.
But none-the-less Nets played the better basketball out playing Pacesetters on both ends of the court.
Out of the 16 points scored by Pacesetters, 10 of those came from Naylon Loncke while, for the Nets, Joel Griffith top scored with 14 points.
Griffith played excellently throughout the tournament cleaning up on both the offensive and defensive boards.
His exploits earned him the MVP award of the final along with the best defensive player award. He received an MP3 player and a digital camera along with a trophy.
The MVP award of the tournament went to Pelham Doris of Nets.
Pacesetters took home 30,000 dollars.
Speaking to Stabroek Sports after the proceedings which was completed 1:45 am yesterday, Worrell’s mom Rhonda Johnson said being at the place where her son last played made her feel very happy.
“Being here doesn’t make me feel sad at all. Actually I’m happy to be here to lend support to the GABA and to cheer the players on. I feel as though I’m seeing him play and I know he would have wanted me to be here to cheer him on.”
Lamenting on the time it took for the tournament to be completed she added:”Now I believe how late basketball is played. Sometimes when my son (Kevin Worrell) used to come home late, I would ask him, `boy are you sure you went to basketball’?
“And he would always say, `yes mom the game finishes very late sometimes’. I miss him very much and this support will be made annually by my family”.
