Plaisance Academy made a case for being considered one of the most dangerous teams in the National School Basketball Festival (NSBF) when the Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) organized programme continued last Tuesday evening at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH).
After 29 points by Nicholas Cassius in their last game, Nikkoloi Smith, their star guard who was the leading scorer in the conference rounds, stepped up his game with 23 points and 15 rebounds as he led the East Coast side past Queen’s College 58-31.
Smith, who only had 10 points in his last outing, an unusual occurrence, returned to hammer the QC students relentlessly, scoring in the paint while dropping a number of second chance points. Cassius continued his good form with 14 points and 14 rebounds while their third option Nduka Horatio had 13 points.
Kareem Critchlow, who had a 20-point game in his last outing, was severely cold from the field via the good defense of Plaisance and only went for six points while Akil Lewis and John Housty both had six points as well.
The University of Guyana (UG) barely hung on for a one point win when they faced Port Mourant Training School (PM) as the game ended 44-43 in favor of the tertiary institution.
UG, who was looking quite comfortable up until the final five minutes of the game, went cold from the field allowing Port Mourant to crawl their way back into the game with points in the paint.
However, hard-nosed defense proved to be the key for the UG players as they barely held on after a missed free throw that would have allowed Port Mourant to tie the game. Leron Jackman, who suffered a nasty fall, coming out of the game with more than five minutes to be played in the final half, recorded 11 points while grabbing nine rebounds.
Clayton Reece and Shaka Codrington also chipped in with 12 and 11 points respectively while Trevon McRea and Antonio Aslam led the comeback for Port Mourant with 18 and 16 points respectively.
Wismar Multilateral then defeated another Berbice School in Tutorial Academy 48-35 in the high speed game.
Both teams never really tried playing at a slower pace which proved to be more successful for the Wismar side as they were more effective at running the basketball after collecting a host of rebounds throughout the game.
Travin Drydan led the way for the Linden side with 19 points while Emanuel Archibald had 12. Jamal Felix was the only Berbician in double figures with 15 points in the losing effort. In the under-16 competition, Marian Academy held off President’s College 40-37 for yet another win in the tournament while handing PC’s under-16 team their first defeat.
Marian, as usual, went about business in their well-organized system, playing hard 2-3 zone defense while looking for the best scoring option on offense.
However, while being a little shaky throughout the game, the Georgetown side pulled off the win mainly due to their ability to rebound the ball. Judah Stephany led the way for Marian Academy with 12 points while Shaquille Adonis’s game-high 19 points were not enough to lead PC to victory.
New Amsterdam Multilateral Secondary (NAMS) finally notched a win in the tournament after two consecutive losses by defeating St. Rose’s High School 33-25.
Sherland Gillis led the way for NAMS with eight points in the back and forth game while Anfernee Jervis had nine points for St. Rose’s High.
Bishops’ High School added easy points to their tally as they gained a walkover against Mae’s Secondary.
Action in the NSBF will continue today from 16:00hrs at the CASH as the country’s best basketball schools face each other.
