-$100,000 winner-take-all Ravens/Pacesetters clash on tonight
The last time the two teams met Ravens outclassed the Courts Pacesetters by 17 points (88-71) to take the GABA Open Knockout First Division tournament last year.
Since then, the city’s top club has been bristling for a rematch.
They have finally gotten their heart’s desire.
The Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) has teamed up with Wind Jammers International Hotel to stage a grudge match with the winner collecting $100,000.
The game will take place at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall this evening with the supporting game bringing together the best of Georgetown and Linden’s under-23 `ballers’ who, incidentally, also have a score to settle.
In the previous meeting, Ravens had a more all-round team performance with their tenacious power forward Dwayne ‘Brown Sugar’ Roberts, the `little big man’ Rodwell Fortune, Ryan Gullen, Kevin Lawrence and Marlon Rodrigues, all finishing with double digits.
In that game, sharp shooter Stephon Gillis was the primary scorer for Pacesetters with 22 points while the other key players like Royston Siland and Travis Burnett were kept mostly silent by stifling Ravens defence.
Though this was the case in their last clash, knowing the competitiveness of the two sides, it’s still hard to pick a winner.
Many basketball fans and pundits believe that the deciding factors in that game were: one, the absence of Pacesetters’ brain box Naylon Loncke and two, the on-point game of Ravens’ point guard Darcel Harris, both on and off the court. Harris’ role for the Ravens has been more than just captain of the ship.
He has taken the chalk and board role after the exodus of former coach Lugard Mohan who is now a FIBA certified referee.
Loncke, although he’s not the captain or the coach of the Pacesetters camp, is often looked upon for guidance by the other players due to his vast knowledge of the game and his ability to take control of the court, both offensively and defensively.
Pacesetters head hunter Bobby Cadogan disclosed yesterday that Loncke will be available for tonight’s clash and will join forces with centre Siland, Gillis and point guards Travis Burnett and Hugh Arthur.
The other members of the ever hustling Pacesetters team include Roberts, Damien Liverpool, Gullen and Sariah Clarke. Meanwhile, the opening fixture is expected to be quite a delight with coaches Mark Agard (Georgetown) and Calvin Slowe (Linden) both envisaging an all-out-war with each predicting nothing other than victory.
“I think we have put together our best players possible for Linden,” said Slowe who mentioned that their line-up would include the likes of Chris Williams, considered the game’s most underrated player and rising star Akeem ‘The Dream’ Kanhai, along with the ‘Sniper’ Orin Rose.
“Well apart from that we have also players like Shane Webster who is right now an emerging player, then we have Javon Nelson, a former junior national, Michael Turner, Michael Rose and a few more very good players who I can’t give off the top of my head but like I said, we coming to win only,” Slowe stated confidently.
For former national point guard Agard, it is just as important for him to bring some new faces to the front burner just as it is to win in order to keep the rivalry going since his aim is development.
“You will not see much of the regular faces since we want to introduce some new talents at this level because in the long term we have to think development. But yea, we will be coming to win, I mean this Linden/Georgetown clash is going on long before my time and it’s good to see these youths carrying it on,” Agard said.
He added: “As it relates to the game and players, I’m not too worried about Kanhai; I mean he is a phenomenal player but we have watched him grow, we know what he’s good and bad at, also Rose, we watch him grow as well, so I know how we are going to deal with Linden.”
