Two-time defending champions of the University of Guyana (UG) Inter-Faculty basketball tournament, the Faculty of Natural Sciences demolished the Faculty of Agriculture/Forestry 72-43 when the two teams met in this year’s edition of the competition yesterday afternoon at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Yesterday’s loss to Natural Sciences was Agriculture’s second loss of the tournament, which began on Monday while Natural Sciences bagged their second win, having gained a walkover from School of Earth and Environmental Sciences on the opening day.
In their first game Agriculture strongly contested Social Sciences in their eight-point (48-40) defeat, but the script was not the same yesterday as they faced a more formidable opposition, equipped with the likes of Courts Pacesetters Division One point-guard Hugh Arthur, Pacesetters Division Three forward, Leron Jackman and UG’s three-point marksman Semyon Fung.
Natural Sciences were harvesting baskets against the Agriculture squad and raced ahead with a 10 point lead by halftime, thanks to constant offensive pressure in the paint, led by Kadeem Jacobs, who scored 18 points for Natural Sciences.
Coming out of the halftime break Agriculture rebounded from their first half whipping strongly and made a brief comeback, spearheaded by their lead scorer Deon Moore. Moore was pivotal in Agriculture’s offence, scoring more than half of his team’s total with 23 points to his name.
Agriculture’s comeback was short lived as Arthur controlled the game from the top of the key, feeding his big men Jacobs and Jackman in transition and pushing the deficit above the 20-point mark.
It was not long before practically everyone in the Natural Sciences line-up got involved in the scoring flurry and reaped the benefits from the holes in the Agriculture team’s defence.
Arthur shifted gears in the latter stages of the second half and used his speed to his advantage in almost every position late in the game by blowing by the Agriculture defenders in the front court and taking the ball directly to the hole. Before long, Arthur drove his way to a game high 29 points, which almost mirrors his game high 30 points in the final of the tournament last year.
Taking advantage of his size on the inside against the Agriculture defenders, Jackman was also instrumental in his team’s 29-point blowout win. Jackman scored a career-high 16 points, while Fung assisted with two baskets from beyond the arc in his eight points.
Other than Moore, none of Agriculture players managed to break into double figures as the next best scorer was Glenford Bovell’s nine, while the usual high scoring Ryan Dey only managed eight.
