The final of the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) BOSAI Minerals Group (Guyana) Incorporated sponsored Open Challenge basketball tournament will take place tonight at the Mackenzie Sports Club Hard-court between Retrieve Raiders and Half Mile Bulls following their semi-final wins Tuesday night.
In the first game Retrieve Raiders edged top seeded Kashif and Shanghai Kings 48-44 while Half Mile Bulls stunned the second ranked Amelia’s Ward Jets 49-48.
Playing on Diwali Night at the Mackenzie Sports Club hard-court, the sixth ranked Retrieve Raiders survived the ejection of their leading player national centre Dwayne ‘Brown’ Sugar Roberts to turn in a scintillating fourth quarter display while the fifth ranked Bulls demonstrated excellent team play to squeak past the Jets in a low scoring affair in front of an appreciative crowd.
Raiders were led to the win behind Roberts’ top score of 11 points. He was supported by guards Sheldron Noel and Anson Durant with eight points each and forward Louis James with seven. Alexander Rose chipped in with five.
Kings could only blame themselves as they led by four points going into the final quarter (34-30) after leading at the end of the first and second quarters (10-9) and (24-19).
Guard Marvin Hartman returned to form in that game scoring 16 pints while guard Steve Neils Jr., Omally Sampson and Abdullah Hamid each scored seven points. Forward Curtis Gravesande had six in a losing cause.
In the other game guards Michael Turner and Sean Easton were the top scorers for the Bulls with 10 points apiece while Travin Dryden contributed eight for the winners and the Webster brothers Allister and Shane had 13 and 12 respectively, to lead the scoring for the Jets.
The third place playoff between the losing semifinalists will take place prior to tonight’s final.
