– Melanie Patriots coach
Newcomers to the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) Division Three League, Melanie Patriots will face a competitor not equal in years of experience when they go up against the Ravens in GABA’s Pepsi Street Playoff Series tomorrow at the Burnham Basketball Court.
The second-seeded Ravens will match skills with third-seeded Melanie Patriots in the evening’s feature game.
This encounter will be a rematch as the teams met earlier in the GABA Division Three and Open Leagues competition at the Burnham Court, which the Ravens won by five points.
The Ravens are among the first basketball clubs to be formed in Georgetown, while the Melanie Patriots came into being just last October.
Whether years of practice and competition experience will make a difference will be determined tomorrow, but one thing’s for certain: both teams will be playing their hearts out as they seek an opening game win in the best-of-three series.The Melanie Patriots worked their way to the position of third seed after they ended the league with a record of six wins and two losses, beating out last year’s league winners Courts Pacesetters, who closed out the top four for the upcoming series.
Finishing the league as the third seed was already a huge accomplishment for the Melanie Patriots who are only contesting their first GABA league; not content they are looking to win it all, as their coach Rayon Keiler pointed out to Stabroek Sport yesterday.
“We are looking to grab the Pepsi Series and we are looking forward to this rematch,” Keiler said confidently.
He stated that his team “got carried away in the third quarter of the first game,” which eventually resulted in the defeat, but this will not be repeated tomorrow.
“Come Saturday Ravens don’t have a chance beating us again… we are ready for this intense battle, Ravens cannot beat us,” Keiler said.
Ravens ended with seven wins, one loss and will be looking to take game one tomorrow.
Ravens’ Division Three team is currently without a coach and team captain. Efforts to contact the team’s acting coach and Ravens First Division point guard, Darcel Harris were unsuccessful.