After a highly contested series of conferences that saw the best school emerging from different zones in Guyana, Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) will tip off its annual National School’s Basketball Festival (NSBF) today from 16:00hrs at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH).
The best-of-the-best school basketball teams will battle head-to-head in the much-anticipated festival as schools that lost out last year will have something prove.
Kwakwani Secondary, out of the Big Ten conference, will look to retain its title as will Marian Academy, Georgetown Conference winners.
Plasiance Academy, winners of the East Coast Conference will be the likely candidate to upset the strong Kwakwani side with the likes of Dominique Douglas leading the way.
Nikkoloi Smith of Plaisance will have something to say about that. The talented guard is in the form of his life and is evidenced by him being yet again the leading scorer in the conference games.
However, the well-organised system of Marian Academy, whose team boasts such players as the talented Dominic Vincente, Ruel Ritch and Tequain Vieira, will have to perform well as a team to pull off an upset against both Kwakwani and Plaisance in the tournament.
Although the schools’ tournament is regarded as one of the best basketball tournaments in the country along with being the measuring stick for selection for the junior national team for the Inter Guiana Games (IGG) a possible clash with the current NCBL International All-Star weekend could occur.
The programmes of the NCBL and the YBG show time clashes on their agendas although organisers of both events have stated that their tournaments will go on and hopefully, no glitches will occur.
“We have been in discussion with (Chris) Bowman about the weekend and hopefully we get a smooth flow because we are looking to start something around when he finishes,” All Star organizer Kwame Mentor told Stabroek Sport.
Bowman was adamant that his programme will go on as it has been a long standing one.
“The YBG will be on that’s a guarantee… we have been around a while now and we will be going through with our programme,” Bowman told Stabroek Sport via telephone.
It will be interesting to see how both organizers cope with the situation even as they attempt to run of their programmes successfully.
