After two nights of basketball on the opening weekend of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) National Club Championships last Saturday and Sunday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, the semi-finalists for the tournament have emerged.
The basketball clubs from Georgetown were relentless on the two nights and ousted their out-of-town opponents from the knockout competition by very substantial margins to advance to the semi-finals.
New Amsterdam was the first team to exit the tournament after they were beaten by Ravens 81-66 in the first game of Saturday night’s double-header.
The game was a fitting opener for the tournament as it brought together the best teams from Berbice and Georgetown head-to-head.
The game got off to a close start as the teams traded baskets and after the first three-quarters, New Amsterdam was giving Ravens a run for their money as the score was tied 59-59 at the end of the third quarter.
However, the men from Berbice apparently buckled under the fourth quarter pressure brought on by the Ravens defence and their opponents shot their way to a spot in the semi-finals.
New Amsterdam was outscored 7-22 in the final quarter.
Dwayne `Brown Sugar’ Roberts was his usual sweet self scoring 19 points while Akeem Kanhai added 16 points for Ravens.
Ryan Gullen chipped in with 12 points.
Former national junior and senior player, Carlos Crandon lead new Amsterdam’s charge with eight points.
In the feature game Saturday night, Macabees sent another visiting team packing and secured their final four spot when they trounced Linden’s Wismar Pistons 66-49.
The feature encounter was much more one-sided than the opening game and Macabees made light work of the Lindeners throughout the four quarters.
National junior forward, Yannick Dundas scored 16 points, Hodayah Stewart 12 points and Darren Thomas 10 points for Macabees.
Quincy Jones finished with 19 points and Allistair Bynoe 12 points for the Pistons.
The other two final four spots were filled Sunday night at the same venue after another round of one-sided affairs in the evening’s double header sent Linden’s, Victory Valley Royals and Retrieve Raiders, packing.
Beepat Scorpions got past Royals 80-68 in the night’s curtain raiser with the help of double digit contributions from Marvis Hillman, who scored a game high 25 points and Shelroy Thomas who added 21.
Royals’ Mark Richard and Chris Williams piloted their team’s effort with 15 and 13 points respectively.
A top-class showing and all-round whipping from Courts Pacesetters was responsible for Raiders’ exit from the competition after Pacesetters cruised to an 88-54 win.
Pacesetters got off to a near perfect start and outscored Raiders 31-5 in the first quarter as baskets came from all angles of the court.
Raiders pulled themselves back considerably in the second quarter, only allowing Pacesetters eight points in that period, but even that wasn’t enough to contain Pacesetters’ offence, who wrapped up the game with a fourth quarter run.
Travis Burnett, 22 and Stephon Gillis with 15 led all scores for Pacesetters, while Raiders’ Louis James scored a game high 24 points.
The semi-finals of the tournament will be contested on Saturday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall with Macabees taking on Ravens and Beepat Scorpions challenging Courts Pacesetters in the double header scheduled for the evening. (Floyd Christie)
