The sounds of the hyped-up fans reverberated throughout the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on Thursday evening as scores witnessed North Ruimveldt edge Charlestown/Albouystown 66-60 to take the third and final game of their best-in-three semi-finals.
With the win, the defending champions North Ruimveldt will advance to the final of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA), Hits and Jams Television (HJTV) and Lens Craft Inter-Ward Basketball Tournament where they would battle against Wortmanvile/Werk-en-Rust.
The game between the two teams never had a dull moment and with a chance to play for $500,000 on the line, the players were highly motivated.
Charlestown after a good start, led by five points at the end of the first quarter 20-15 but North Ruimveldt point guard and captain Darcel Harris took command of the ball and worked his magic on the ‘Ghetto Boys’ defence.
He was all over the court and scored a buzzer beater from just above half court to send his side up 33-40 at the end of the first half.
From then on the game was always in favour of the North side that took control of the court, playing an excellent rotation with national forwards Andrew Ifill and Damian Liverpool, the latter being the livewire on defence while also making important contributions on offence.
Charlestown unlike the first half, went away from the game that saw them
having North on their heels. Dwayne ‘Brown Sugar’ Roberts had a good thing going against Ifill but for some reason that was short lived and as some pundits predicted, inexperience and with no one to lead Charlestown, they began to crumble.
To make matters worse, Charlestown only scored two points in the entire third quarter as they felt the wrath of North’s tenacious defence. The eventual winners added 20 points to their half time score and once again Harris emulated his first half buzzer beater, to the delight of the North fans.
However, the team from the ‘ghetto’ would not go down without a fight as Trevor McLeod who enjoyed a good night on the floor tried to seal their chances of making it to the finals, but Harris, Liverpool and Ifill thwarted their every move.
The final whistle was blown and the North fans engulfed the playing area to celebrate a much deserved series win after losing the first game. After the game, Harris told Stabroek Sport that his side stuck to their game plan which was to play defence from jump ball. And not worrying too much about scoring, Harris said, was also part of their plan.
He also pointed out that is why their primary player, Ifill felt the warmth of the bench unlike the previous games.
“Well Ifill was playing good but he wasn’t pacing himself on defence and we made it clear that if any one doesn’t play defence we would make the rotation on the bench because we have enough players. But he (Ifill) like I said offensively got the job done.”
“The defence tonight for us was how we played on the board. Damian (Liverpool) really came in and did wonders as well as all the other players, so it’s now to focus on the finals,” Harris added.
The diminutive player finished with a game high 19 points, three steals and eight rebounds. This was the first game of the tournament that Ifill scored under 20 points as he finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Liverpool had 13 points and nine rebounds while Quincy Jones chipped in with 12 points and had five rebounds.
For the losers who will now have to play South Ruimveldt for third place and $200,000, Dwayne Roberts had 14 points and 12 rebounds while McLeod also had 14 points. Rodwel Fortune had ten points and three rebounds.
