It was certainly a night of blowouts on Wednesday at the Burnham Basketball Court when Courts Pacesetters and Ravens Basketball Clubs displayed their top rank billing in Georgetown by utterly mauling their opponents by margins of 30 points and more.
Wednesday evening saw the second night of Open games in the continuation of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) Division Three and Open leagues with Pacesetters whipping Eagles 87-51 and Ravens annihilating Colours Panthers 71-39.
In the first of the two Open clashes, the Pacesetters were not competing against one of the top-ranked teams in the Open league and they made this even more apparent with the post-game score line.
Pacesetters seemingly seized the opportunity to outclass their opponents and send a message to their future challengers, who they will meet in the playoff stages.
Hugh Arthur and Stephon Gillis were the driving force behind Pacesetters’ onslaught contributing 27 points each while their teammate Travis Burnett assisted with 14.
Mark Wills scored almost half of his team’s points by scoring 22 for Eagles.
The Pacesetters’/Eagles game was Pacesetters’ final game of the Open league and they are certainly en route to the Pepsi Street Series and Playoffs, which will be contested by the top four teams in the Open league, along with the top four teams in the Division Three league.
For Eagles, their loss in the Open category against Pacesetters Wednesday night was their second since the league’s continuation and their chances of reaching the Playoffs got slimmer after they lost to East/West Fire last Sunday (80-69).
They have one game remaining against Ravens this coming Sunday.
In Wednesday night’s second and final game, Ravens were met early on with a very competitive-looking Colours Panthers team and the game seemed to have all the right ingredients to go down to the wire as the teams matched each other shot for shot throughout the first quarter.
They were no mismatches and Colours Panthers held their own against Ravens in the low-post, snatching the boards and doing enough on defence to have some attendees saying that Ravens might have been in for an upset when the low scoring first quarter ended with Ravens having a minimal 11-10 points lead.
Some of Ravens’ rivals were probably wishing the same for the men in orange, but Ravens illustrated why they are hailed the number one team in Georgetown and were already changing the minds of many by halftime when they advanced to a 31-20 points advantage.
By the start of the third quarter, Ravens’ defence was in full force and Panthers only managed to score six points in the entire third period.
When the fourth quarter began with the score 49-26, the blowout had already begun and even as the Colours Panthers players traded baskets with their opponents as the quarter progressed, Ravens’ lead had already became insurmountable.
Dwayne Roberts was once again the go-to guy in the paint for Ravens and he netted a game-high 25 points, while Soriah Clark added 11.
Yannick December and Olatande Griffith accumulated 13 and 10 points respectively for Colours Panthers.
Ravens and Colours Panthers each have one game remaining in the Open league. The Panthers are scheduled to clash with the Beepat Scorpions tomorrow, while Ravens will meet the Eagles the following day.