It’s not a bird or a plane, it’s Yannick December about to slam home a one-handed dunk during Alpha/Bourda’s 78-58 win over Tucville on Thursday. (Orlando Charles photo)

South Ruimveldt rounds off star-studded quarterfinalists

Just when people thought that the minnows were going to gracefully exit the inter-ward basketball tournament, along came the Alpha/Bourda side to bring new life to the already captivating competition.

South Ruimveldt point guard Steve Neils Jr blows by this Prospect player as he helps his team to a 91-70 win. (Orlando Charles Photo)

On night four of the tournament, the underdog team astonishingly eased past pre-tournament favourites Tucville 78-58, while South Ruimveldt thrashed Prospect/Grove 91-70 to set up what should be interesting quarterfinal matches which begin tonight at the Cliff Anderson Sports hall.

From jump-ball the Alpha/Bourda side’s attitude on the court clearly spelt ‘win’; racing to an 11-point (25-14) lead going into the second quarter. However, the Tucville team was able to regroup and bounced back to trail by only three points (32-29) at the end of the first half.

But from the third period it was all about ‘Bourda’ with Yannick December energizing his team, releasing several thunderous dunks during his demolition run.

December had a game high 18 points, grabbing four rebounds and engineering three steals in the process. Point guard Jacob Lowe enjoyed a good night in the back court throwing up 15 points and sneaking in six steal.

Yannick Wade stood tall in the middle finishing with a double-double (14 points, 16 rebounds and five steals).

Rawle White and Richard Braithwaite played excellently for the losers but their combined 33 points were not enough to see them through to the next round.

White shot 18 points, took seven rebounds, had one blocked shot and two steals and Braithwaite 15 points, eight rebounds, one blocked shot and three steals.

Meanwhile with national Point Guard Steve Neils on their side, South Ruimveldt strongly signalled their intention of claiming the tournament’s $500,000 first prize with their performance on Thursday last against Prospect/Grove.

After a closely contested first half, which saw South Ruimveldt leading 46-40, things took a dramatic turn as Neils along with Sherwin Roberts and former national player Dane Kendal, stepped up the pace which was obviously too fast for the Prospect side.

Roberts banged in 21 points and five rebounds while Kendal had 17 points and eight rebounds playing in the front court and Neils had a fruitful night handling the ball with 14 points, six assists and four steals.

Meanwhile, hearts could be broken from this evening as the tournament enters the quarterfinals stage with defending champions North Ruimveldt coming up against Plaisance in game one, while the other game will see Lodge/Meadowbrook squaring off against Charles-town/Albouystown.

It will be hard for the pundits to predict a winner since from the looks of things in the preliminaries it will go in the favour of the team that comes out with more passion and hunger than the other.

The defending champs on the opening night unveiled a surprise when they suited Trinidad and Tobago-based national forward Andrew ‘Mr Dunk’ Ifill in their line-up which also features Darcel Harris, Damien Liverpool and Linden guest player Quincy Jones.

Plaisance were no pushovers with Ryan Gullen and Stephon Gillis leading their charge.

Dwayne ‘Brown Sugar’ Roberts of Linden will once again attempt to repeat his first game all-round performance when he features in the Albouystown line-up along with Alwyn Belamy and Trevor McLeod.

Lodge/Meadowbrook, basically the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Assoc-iation (GABA) first division side ‘Nets’, will depend on power forwards Drumson McCauley and Fabian Johnson along with guard Mortimer Williams.