By Treiston Joseph
School of the Nations edged out Government Technical Institute (GTI) 37-34 in the National Schools’ Basketball Festival organized by the Youth basketball Guyana (YBG) and the National Sports Commission (NSC) at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) last Sunday.
Terrence Paton and Dominique Noel, the last two premier players for Nation’s left on the team since five of their original team members were drafted to colleges in the United States of America combined for 24 of Nations’ 37 points scoring 14 and 10 respectively to pick up the win for Nations.
Drexel Amsterdam, who scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for GTI, threw down a tomahawk dunk to add a little flare to the contest while Clavin Harding contributed 12 points for GTI.
The loss has resulted in the tertiary institution being outsted from the Festival.
Marian Academy prevailed over President’s College (PC) 56-35 as they looked to be more of themselves when compared to their lacklustre performance against Tutorial Academy last Friday. Marian executed well on defense which allowed them to operate and score easier on the offensive end of the court. Tequan Vieira dropped 22 points while Ruel Ritch and Selvaughn Moseley contributed 10 and 12 points respectively. Nyamebekyere Bacchus managed a double-double for PC as he scored 13 points and collected 14 rebounds.
Kwakwani Secondary made scoring look easy as they outplayed University of Guyana (UG) in the second half 51-33 to pick up a much needed victory while sending the UG students out of the tournament and back to their studies.
UG played good defense in the first half to hold Kwakwani to a low scoring first half that ended 12-14 in favor of Kwakwani, but the second half proved different as Kwakwani rotated the ball a lot more which helped in getting their players easy shots at the rim or from mid range.
Dominique Douglas scored a game high 22 points and collected 9 rebounds while Joseph Gilkes chipped in with a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Leron Jackman produced a gutsy 18 points for UG while Deval Wilson contributed 13 points to the loss.
In the Division Two category Queen’s College (QC) blew out Brickdam Secondary 73-15 as QC picked up their first win of the Festival.
Akil Lewis led the way with his best performance of the tournament for QC as he scored 25 points and grabbed 13 rebounds during the blow out contest while Tyrone Austin accounted for 7 of Brickdam’s 15 points.
Results:- Division One: Marian Academy 56 – President’s College 35, Kwakwani Secondary 51 – University of Guyana 33, School of the Nations 37 – Government Technical Institute 34, Plaisance Academy gained a walkover against Diamond Secondary.
Division Two: Queen’s College 73 – Brickdam Secondary 15, Charlestown Secondary 43 – St. Roses 18.
