Two of the most popular rivals in Guyana’s basketball booked their places in the final of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) National Club Championships after wins in the semi-finals Saturday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Ravens and Courts Pacesetters each scored commanding wins against their opponents in the semi finals, setting up yet another meeting in a tournament final between Georgetown’s number one and two seeds.
Ravens, currently holding the title of Georgetown’s top team, defeated Macabees 72-56 in game one of the semi final double header, while Pacesetters easily disposed of Scorpions 73-48 in the feature game of the evening.
The Ravens-Macabees duel jumped off as a close encounter and, as they game boiled down to the halftime mark, Macabees led their opponents by one.
Coming out of the halftime break, with the score 32-31 in favour of Macabees, the game was heading for an exiting second half.
But a dismal third quarter from Macabees gave Ravens control of the game as Macabees were outscored 23-5 in the third period.
Ravens led 54-37 going into the fourth quarter.
Macabees picked it up in the final period, but the third period surge of easy points that stemmed from turnovers due to defensive pressure by Ravens was enough to ensure Ravens a trip to the final.
Leading the way for Ravens on the score sheet was Akeem Kanhai with 18 points, Yusuf Edghill 14, Ryan Stephney 13 and Ryan Gullen 12, while for Macabees, Yannick Dundas netted 13 and Hodayah Stewart 10.
Meanwhile, in the feature game, Pacesetters found themselves threatened by Scorpions in the first half of the game but went on to outscore them 30-10 in the final period for the win.
Travis Burnett and Jermaine Hamilton each scored 16 points for Pacesetters, while Naylon Loncke assisted with 12.
On the other end of the court, Shelroy Thomas was the main scorer, netting 12 points for Scorpions, while his teammate Desmond Chin assisted with 10 points.
