A vociferous crowd at the McKenzie Sports Club hard court in Linden yesterday hailed the McKenzie High School (MHS) as they blew away New Silver City Secondary School (NSSS) 50-36 to preserve their championship trophy in the finals of the 5th Victory Valley Royals (VVR) Inter-school basketball tournament.
The atmosphere was conducive for a finals but the results were lopsided although both teams put on a show for the large crowd in attendance.
NSSS started out playing well and won the hearts of the spectators after coasting to an early 8-0 lead early in the first half, much to the admiration of their supporters who were exuberant whenever a good play was made.
But Akeem Kanhai who was later named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament and his MHS troops had another plan as they showed that the race is not always for the swift but for those who can endure to the end.
Kanhai and his new found lethal weapon in forward Sheldron Noel took the bull by the horns like true matadors and led their school to a 16-35 half time score.
By this time, the crowd realized that MHS meant business but showed good sportsmanship to cheer NSSS, whose point guard Marlon Pollydore played a very good game but lacked the much needed support from his players who often made a mess of most of his good passes.
MHS coach Quincy Cummings used the opportunity to introduce some of his bench warmers into the game, but this saw the losers starting to creep up on them and so he had to bring back his more seasoned players in the game.
Kanhai had a game high 23 points which was accompanied by 15 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots while Noel who is one of the players who has moved up to prominence in the local school basketball arena, had 12 points inclusive of two back-to-back three-pointers in the first half.
For the losers, Pollydore had 13 points and Yanick Primo had 10.
With the win, MHS will have the Wayne ‘Buturu’ Bryan lien trophy for keeps after winning the event twice before in 2006 and 2008.
Last year Kanhai swept through the individual prizes but this time around, the story was different. While the young Kanhai who is considered Guyana’s best junior basketball player has lived up to expectations, a few other players have also stepped up to the plate.
But this did not stop him from taking home the final MVP for his all- round performance. He received a beautiful trophy, compliments of Aubrey Singh and a pair of Nike sneakers donated by Carlos Mendez. Kanhai also took home the tournament’s highest individual scorer trophy.
Pollydore of NSSS was adjudged the MVP of the losing team and he also received a pair of sneakers, compliments of Mendez.
Meanwhile in the third place play off, Linden Foundation Secondary defeated Christianburg Wismar Secondary to take home the trophy which was made possible by Orin Lousin. A number of players were also rewarded for their good showing in the tournament this year with trophies donated by Maxi Stephens.
MHS’ Quincy Cummings was named the coach of the tournament and this award was expected since his team didn’t lose a match in the competition this year.
Brainchild of the tournament and President of the VVR Basketball Club, Linden ‘Sancho’ Alphonso said that even though it was exciting there is much work to be done in order to bring basketball to a decent standard in Linden.
He said apart from Kanhai whose skills are exceptional compared to the other players in the tournament, not many players stood out this year but his club is committed to the development of the sport in Linden since it was from this very tournament that Kanhai was able to break out.
