-says Akeem Kanhai
By Rawle Toney in Suriname
Akeem Kanhai could have been living ‘the dream’ of taking his country to victory in his first outing as national youth captain.
Instead Kanhai proved that he was only human, making some crucial turnovers in the dying stages of the Inter-Guiana games final round clash against Suriname which resulted in the host capitalizing and defeating Guyana 84-82.
In the process, Suriname dethroned the Guyanese to lift the 2009 male basketball Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) title after they had also beaten French Guiana.
They say that basketball is a team sport and a loss does not fall on one man’s shoulder.
But with the 18-year-old Kanhai being regarded as one of the best junior basketballers in Guyana, coach Bobby Cadogan entrusted him with the ball when most of his offensive players were fouled out.
He had six turnovers out of his team’s 18.
Everyone realized that the Surinamese could not mark Kanhai one-on-one and so Cadogan ran most of the plays through him.
Kanhai did what was expected of him when he used his lethal crossovers to evade the defenders and then found his players who were open.
He also made a decisive And-1 basket when his side was down 82-77 with two minutes remaining in the game and his free shot brought them two points closer (82-80).
Kanhai, who only played five minutes of the fourth quarter after picking four fouls earlier in the game, dribbled the ball into a defender with 25.8 seconds remaining in the game but held his composure, played the passing lane well and intercepted a pass.
He easily scored the lay-up to level the game at 82 points.
However, Suriname’s Furgen Adasi collected the ball on a fast break and scored a lay-up which would turn out to be his team’s winning basket.
Kanhai once again collected the ball on the inbound but was forced to pass to Rose who had the ball stolen from him.
But then inexplicably the Surinamese did Guyana a favour when a long pass from Earvin De Randamie to Adasi went out of bounds with six seconds remaining on the clock.
The Guyanese had been given a lifeline.
However, the Surinamese table official did not stop the game clock when the ball was out-of-bounds and five seconds came off.
Guyana’s coach and spectators were all on their feet and shouting at the top of their voices for the referee to ask the table official to put back the wasted five seconds and the French Guyanese official complied and was given thumbs up by the head table which meant that they would but they didn’t.
With only one second left, there was nothing Kanhai could do with the ball after collecting a long pass from back court because as soon as he touched it, the time expired and the Surinamese celebrated.
When the game started the Guyanese came out playing like true champions and fed off of Kanhai who was unstoppable.
They led by 10 points (25-15) at the end of the first quarter and though outplayed 19-13 in the second quarter, still held a four-point lead at half-time (38-34)
Kanhai ended with 17 points, 10 rebounds and four steals while the big shooter Rose had 22 points inclusive of four from beyond the arc while Thomas was fouled out in the fourth quarter with 16 points after having an excellent game
“I wasn’t nervous at all, I think I was more excited to win it; my coach and the players they trusted me with the ball like they have been doing all the time and I think I did respond. But I am only human, I played my best.
“We all fought hard for this win; we trained very hard for this game. I think yes, I let my team down, but still I’m proud of myself and my team because we fought hard, it’s just sad that we lost like this,” Kanhai told Stabroek Sport after the game.
The national youth captain added: “I don’t think that I’m hurt in no way with this loss because I always go out there to play my best. I did what was asked of me, the other guys Shelroy (Thomas) and Rose (Orin) and others, they did a great game, but I’m not sad or anything. It could have been much better if we had won, but this is a game and I’m only human and if people say I threw away the game, well I gave my best but at the end I made a few mistakes.”
Supporting his star player, Cadogan said, “Well any coach would give his best player the ball in crunch time. He did a great job in the tournament and played well, but this is basketball, you win some, you lose some. I don’t think a few turnovers in the late part of the game made us lose; it was that we were in some serious foul trouble. I was forced to sit Kanhai like almost half the fourth quarter after I lost Shelroy, Yannick and Buns (Clive Wilson) and I had to put him back in. Trust me he did what I asked of him but things happen I hope he learns from it because he has a far way to go.
“Overall I am very proud of these guys because I know for a fact they wanted this game very bad like me. They give 100% all the time on the court and also I think this type of game between us and Suriname would only do well for the entire IGG because you see that the standard of the game has been raised.”