Beepat’s Scorpions and Courts Pacesetters basketball clubs recorded hard-fought victories over Macabees and Demerara Panthers respectively when the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) competition continued at the Burnham Court Wednesday night.
The Scorpions nearly had their sting withdrawn in their match with Macabees before they rallied to record a 49-41 victory in the Lens Craft Optical-sponsored first-division encounter.
Pacesetters on the other hand, had to dig deep into the reserve tank to defeat the Panthers 47-43 in their Kevin Worrell Memorial third division match-up to remain unbeaten.
Panthers trailed 17-25 at the half despite holding an early 2-0 lead following a technical against Pacesetters.
But they found it hard to maintain a positive offence on a dimly-lit basketball court.
With 3:05 seconds to go in the third quarter and with his team leading 32-29, Pacesetters’ Jerome Taylor missed four consecutive free throws following the use of indecent language by a player and the coach of Panthers.
Pacesetters then went on a 9-2 run to lead 43-37, thanks to the efforts of Tariq Cave.
But Panthers answered with a 6-0 run of their own to draw level at 43 points, thanks to the efforts of J.R Hooper before Tariq Cave, who ended with a game-high 21 points, made two important free throws to push his team into the lead with 2:14s remaining.
At this stage, Panthers were clearly playing for the final whistle which Cave capitalized on and got for himself and his team two more valuable points in the dying stages of the game to ensure that Pacesetters maintain their unbeaten streak.
No other Pacesetters player was able to make it into the double-figure column, but Ian Khanen and Hooper had 12 and 10 points each for Panthers.
The feature game of the evening was way off expectations and after trading baskets, Scorpions led Macabees, 27-18 at lemon time.
The only bright spark in that half was the superb dunk by Darren Thomas, following a miss shot from Foster.
Even though he did not manage many points, Macabees’ Mark Lawrence gave his team many second chances as he collected nine of his overall 13 rebounds.
But despite his efforts on the backboard, Macabees found themselves behind the eight ball with their point guard Hodayah Stewart being content to prove to the sprinkling of spectators that he can still be a force on the local scene.
He missed shots and layups, when alone or on one-on-one situations which proved very costly for his team and even though he nailed a three-pointer with just under two minutes to go, Macabees still trailed 38- 41.
At the final whistle, which went after a dispute over a point scored by Macabees with only 20 seconds left on the clock, Scorpions were able to register their first win of the year, thanks to Thomas who scored 13 points and Trevor Mc Leod who supported with nine.
For Macabees, former national under-19 player Kester Gomes netted 10 points while Stewart came up with eight points, albeit in a losing effort for his team.
The action is expected to continue tonight at the same venue, and basketball players and fans alike would be hoping that the lighting improves to give the players a chance to showcase their skill and talent.