-team to square off with North Ruimveldt for place in final
North Ruimveldt and Charlestown/ Albouystown will face off tonight in the third and final game of their best-in-three semi finals of this year’s Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA), Hits and Jams Television (HJTV) and Lens Craft Inter-Ward basketball tournament at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Charlestown easily won the first game of the series but the defending champions came back last week to inflict a 19-point whipping (75-56) to force a final game.
The tournament’s first prize of $500,000 is the biggest purse ever for a basketball tournament in Guyana and as such the players are expected to come out and play twice as hard to move within sight of the money.
On paper, North Ruimveldt has the bigger team and the better players and this fact is unquestionable.
National forward Andrew `Mr. Dunk’ Ifill has scored well over 20 points per game so far in the tournament and a method of stopping him has not yet been found by the opposition.
Also, the defending champions have the advantage in the back court with Darcel Harris and Ryan Stephaney taking charge of the point guard position.
In game two Harris was more on the sidelines and allowed Stephney to handle the ball and its distribution which saw him finishing with 14 points.
He also dished out some key assists.
Damien Liverpool and guest player from Linden, Quincy Jones, stepped up big in game two and are expected to do the same at the bottom.
In game two the Charlestown team was completely out played at all ends of the floor simply because their primary players were having a miserable night on the court.
Dwayne ‘Brown Sugar’ Roberts, Alwyn Bellamy and Rodwel Fortune all failed to even reach double digits and if they are to even have a chance to play in the finals this is an area that they would have to tighten up on.
Making the adjustment
After losing the first game of the series to Charlestown, Harris said that they were too dependent on principal scorer Ifill and would adjust accordingly.
The all round team performance in game two was testimony of what they had promised to do.
So now the question is how will Charlestown/Albouystown adjust? Roberts, in an invited comment told Stabroek Sports that their game plan was to simply try and focus on North’s primary scorers in Stephaney and Ifill.
Asked about the other North players, the Charlestown/Albouystown power forward said they just needed to work on Plan ‘A’ and see how it goes.
Even though both teams are evenly poised to make it to the finals, based on the statements of both teams, it’s only an all-round effort that would prevail and it could not have been said better than by no other than the great Michael Jordan…“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”
