Guyana’s junior national basketball team’s long and arduous training leading up to the Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) paid dividends when they defeated French Guiana 69-62 Friday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
The junior nationals began their quest to regain the IGG basketball title, which they lost to Suriname last year, in good stride following the commencement of the basketball events in the second leg of the IGG currently being hosted by Guyana.
To the delight of the home crowd the game finally got started after a lengthy delay, which pushed the already behind schedule games way past its 9pm scheduled starting time.
The home crowd was held in suspense during the delay caused by both teams taking the court with the same white colour uniforms. After much deliberating between officials, Guyana opted to change uniforms, forcing supporters to wait until Guyana’s change of uniform arrived.
However, the home crowd was not disappointed as Guyana, now in bright red vests, turned the basket red as well as they opened the scoring with a scorching 8-0 run.
French Guiana got it together about midway through the first quarter and ended Guyana’s lead on the scoreboard as they mustered a 15-14 lead at the end of the first period.
It was evident that Guyana had their work cut out for them as the French nailed one from downtown at the start of the second quarter to extend their lead.
The lead shifted intermittently in Guyana’s favour, but French Guiana came with their three-point gunners and darted to a 34-31 lead at halftime, thanks to long range jumpers from outside the arc from Charles Malderby, Kevin Marcin, Alain Jacinthe and Fiederic Herman.
Guyana’s Captain Akeem Kanhai was already playing a significant role for his team prior to halftime and brought the already supportive home crowd to its feet just before halftime when he successfully eluded a French Guiana defender with a crafty round the back lay-up.
Kanhai stepped it up in the third quarter and, aided by his Vice-Captain, Richard Mohandatt, and stifling defence from their teammates, Guyana surged into a lead that was never surmounted by French Guiana for the remainder of the game.
Guyana were on an all out offensive in the third quarter. Kanhai regained the lead for the home team by scoring Guyana’s first four third-quarter points and Mohandatt added to the total immediately after by drilling one from beyond the arc. The duo followed up their early offensive by amassing a 10-0 run during the third quarter for Guyana, with Kanhai accounting for six points in the run.
Meanwhile, on the defensive end French Guiana were in total shutdown and with Kanhai cleaning up the defensive rebounds and dishing it quickly into transition, the French were placed in a chokehold. With less than a minute remaining in the third period, the visitors had only managed to score three points for the entire third quarter.
This allowed Guyana to take a 55-40 lead at the end of the third quarter and though the visiting side threatened Guyana’s mammoth lead in the fourth quarter, it proved to be unsurpassable by the final buzzer.
Kanhai bagged a double-double by recording a game high 26 points and pulling down 19 rebounds, while Lindon Fraser and Geoffrey La Rose were also in double figures with 18 and 12 points respectively. Mohandatt contributed nine.
French Guiana’s scoring was lead by Jacinthe, Malderby and Ceylio Beinvenu who scored 14, 11 and 10 points respectively.
