Victory Valley Royals and Retrieve Raiders continued their superb run in the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) U-19 competition in matches over the weekend at the Mackenzie Sports Club hardcourt.
Of the eight participating clubs, the two are yet to taste defeat.
They are also the only teams to have advanced to the semi-finals which will be played on March 1.
On Saturday, Royals doused Block 22 Flames 48 – 35 while Raiders clipped the Jets 56 – 54.
Royals’ point-guard, Marlon Pollydore, continued to impress and while his numbers on Friday were not as high as his two previous games; the role he played was worth more.
Pollydore and his troops held the Flames to a 19 – 11 half-time lead and never allowed their Wismar counterparts to get into the game as the youths from the Victory Valley area played stifling defence and made good their open looks at the basket.
Theodore Tappin, who has also been turning in some notable numbers and Pollydore combined to score 30 of the Royals’ total points with each player scoring 15 points.
Meanwhile, the Raiders snatched a hard fought victory over the Jets who had their star player Akeem Kanhai back in uniform after missing the first match.
But even with Kanhai in their line-up, the Amelia’s Ward team failed to withstand the pressure from the Raiders and ran out of fuel.
At half-time, the Jets led 28 – 27; a lead which meant nothing after the Raiders displayed a team effort to keep Kanhai out of position as much as possible.
Jeffery La Rose 13, Deval Wilson 16 and Deuel Garner 12 were the primary scorers for Raiders while Parish Cadogan had a game-high 20 points and Kanhai, 19, for the Jets who now will square off with the Kings in a must-win situation.
The Kings, after falling to an opening night defeat to the Raiders, stormed back to sink the weak Amelia’s Ward Ballers 99 – 33.
Sheldon Noel poured in a game-high 30 points and Jermain Joseph crafted 22 for the Kings who did not allow any of the Ballers players to reach double digits.
Also getting a ‘W’ was the Bulls who overcame the Piston 56 – 38.
Travis Dryden topscored with 20 points. The Pistons seemed not to have been firing on all cylinders as none of their players reach the double-figure mark.
The competition will continue on Friday with an interesting double-header.
In game one, Jets and Kings will meet in a game that will decide who will be the other team from Group `A’ to advance to the semi-finals.
Both teams have one win and one defeat and a victory for either side will see them playing against Royals on Monday.
Game two will bring together Flames and Pistons and if the Block 22 based team should win, they will advance at the expense of the Bulls who have played their full quota of matches, winning one and losing two.
Group A
Teams Games played Points
Raiders 3 9
Jets 2 4
Ballers 3 3
Kings 2 4
Group B
Teams Games played Points
Royals 3 9
Flames 2 4
Bulls 3 5
Pistons 2 2
