The North Ruimveldt basketball team remained unbeaten, proving that it is truly a ‘super ward’ in the Mackeson Super Ward Basketball Championships Tuesday night when they outscored Kitty-Campbellville 64-54 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
The North Ruimveldt stars came out shooting and the defending champions got off to a flyer in the opening quarter, leaving Kitty-Campbellville trailing by seven points, closing on 20-13.
However, Kitty-Campbellville were not to be outdone as they came out in the second quarter and turned on the defensive pressure only allowing North Ruimveldt seven points before the close of the half which ended with the scores tied on 27.
The pace quickly changed at halftime as Ryan Gullen fired first to start the second half with a beautiful baseline jumper over Kitty-Campbellville defenders. He went on to score 13 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. Their offence did not stop there as North Ruimveldt turned up the heat and it seemed like they were hitting everything, as they almost doubled their first half total in the third quarter.
Kitty-Campbellville were outplayed and held scoreless for the first five minutes of the last quarter. This was due to the controlled ball circulation and speed of North Ruimveldt, who lived in their opponents’ half of the court accumulating an 11-0 run in the fourth.
With chants of ‘defence’ from their supporters, and backed by some vital points from Hodayah Stewart who totalled 15 points, Kitty-Campbellville almost came back in the game as the clock ticked away.
However, aided by the aggression of North Ruimveldt’s Stephon Henry who sneaked six steals and amassed 14 points, Kitty-Campbellville slumped in the end by 10.
Damion Liverpool also scored 14 for North Ruimveldt while Darren Thomas and Shane Webster shared nine points each for Kitty-Campbellville.
In the high-scoring opening game South Ruimveldt hit a flurry of shots in their 14-point win over East Bank, ending 87-73.
Five players from South Ruimveldt were able to attain double figures in their 87-point onslaught.
Gavin Beeram led their scoring with 16 points backed by a dominant performance from Sherwin Roberts and Fabian Johnson, who each scored 14 and snatched 13 and six rebounds respectively.
Aubrey Austin contributed 14 points for East Bank and Clarence Blackman garnered 11.
Tonight at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall New Amsterdam will challenge East Coast Demerara at 7 pm, and Wortmanville/Werk-en-Rust will take on Albouystown-Charlestown in the feature game (Floyd Christie)
