By Floyd Christie
After much anticipation and a brief opening ceremony the National Schools Basketball Festival (NSBF) jumped off at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall yesterday with Saint Stanislaus College grabbing the first win of the tournament over Plaisance Secondary in their under-16 contest which ended 27-22 at the final buzzer.
President’s College under-18 boys later crumbled to Marian Academy 25-33 in the second of the four games played yesterday. This was immediately followed by Trust College’s devastating 24-74 point loss in the other under-18 match-up as the older players of Plaisance Secondary redeemed their school after their under-16 opening loss and administered the first blowout of the competition.
In the final game of the evening which was an open encounter, School of the Nations were easily snuffed out by a more experienced University of Guyana team when their two 15-minute sessions of play ended 47-27.
In the curtain raiser Plaisance were trying to pull off a victory against tall odds when they faced a towering Saints line-up as compared to their miniature guards and forwards, who often found themselves on the receiving end of a shot block and were being out-rebounded on the offensive and defensive end.
Even so, Plaisance held their competitors close throughout the first half and half way through the second until Saints pulled away with a 12-point lead.
Even though it seemed a towering challenge the Plaisance side appeared to be making a comeback to take the game to a dramatic finish as they worked their way around the tall Saints defenders and reduced the Saints lead to three points with one minute remaining.
The valiant efforts of Plaisance were still not enough to take them past Saints and they eventually fell short by five points.
Saints’ Lorenzo Bethune picked up a double-double after he controlled the paint and snatched the spoils coming off the ring and board with a game high 16 rebounds and 12 points.
Meanwhile Plaisance players were unable to achieve double figures as Kelvin Yorrick top scored with seven points.
In game two, Selvaughn Moseley and Ruel Ritch led Marian Academy to victory with 12 and 11 points respectively. Ritch was on fire from three-point land and knocked down President’s College chances of winning with three long range daggers.
Most of the counter attack by President’s College came from Kade Pearce, who contributed nine points.
The night’s 60-point blowout which was administered by Plaisance in the under-18 group was laden with players in double figures for the victors. Joel Smith piloted the bombardment on the Trust College basket with 16 points, while Nikkoloi Smith and Nicholas Cassius bagged 14 points each.
The young Kelvin Yorrick who led his team’s fight in the opening game also got in on the under-18 action and multiplied his one three pointer scored for Plaisance in the first game with four shots from beyond the arc in his second appearance, as he totaled 12.
Dominic Vicente seemingly single handedly added some merit to the Trust College score as he was responsible for 18 of their 24 points.
The Richard Mohandatt show capped off the evening as he went on to amass a game high 20 points for the University of Guyana and proved why he is acknowledged by the street name ‘Coolie Jordan`. His sharp crossovers got him past the somewhat limited defence to finish with some crowd pleasing lay-ups.
Mohandatt picked up where he left off in high school as the past President’s College star battled against his opponents and the buoyant School of the Nations supporters who celebrated like their team had scored a Football World Cup goal every time their boys secured a basket. Nations’ response was led by Dylan Walker’s eight points and Dominique Noel’s seven.
The NSBF continues today at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall with 10 basketball match-ups beginning at 12.30pm.
