Ministry of Sport Inter-School Basketball tournament
By Rawle Toney
Charlestown Secondary and the Government Technical Institute (GTI) were the first two teams to advance to the semi-finals of this year’s Ministry of Sport Mash-ramani Inter-School Basket-ball Tournament, after recording remarkable victories on Tuesday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Charlestown brushed aside Marian Academy 33-18 while GTI humiliated Central High 122-23.
Charlestown under the guidance of national player and coach Naylon Loncke were made to fight hard but only in the first half of the game against Marian Academy who were coached by former Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association president Chris Bowman.
After playing unbeaten in the preliminaries, Charlestown seemed determined to maintain that distinction. They started slowly as Marian Academy were carrying the pace of the game, but then the Charlestown boys clawed their way back and finished the first half leading 12-11. In the second half, they turned up the steam and stopped their counterparts from scoring while at times they even put the ball on the floor. For the winners, captain Orison Amsterdam led the way with 10 points while Colin Nelson had seven. Taquain Vieira who has been the point man for Marian throughout the tournament finished with 10 points as well.
Meanwhile the GTI versus Central High encounter was too much of a one-sided affair. Initially, the game was supposed to be GTI against Critchlow Labour College, but they were disqualified for indiscipline.
The GTI team were too much for Central to handle with the score at the half being 70-13.
The onslaught continued in the second half with the game ending with GTI winning by 99 points (122-23), and also scoring the most points in the tournament.
The tournament continued yesterday with President’s College facing Covent Garden Secondary while St. Stanislaus (Saints) met Bishops’ High School. Up to press time yesterday, the outcome of those matches were not known.
Today, the semi-finals with the first game at 16:00 hrs will see Charlestown Secondary coming up against the winner of the President’s College/Covent Garden match while GTI are down to play the winner of the Bishops’/Saints encounter.
The curtains will come down on the tournament on Sunday.
