LABA Basketball Festival...Pistons, Kings reach final

LABA Basketball Festival…Pistons, Kings reach final

Sep 02, 2008 Sports

By Edison Jefford

Quincy Jones

Nevin Grenville

Marvin Hartman

National first division champions, Wismar Pistons and last year’s national Division One runner–up, Kashif and Shanghai Kings, ensured that the rivalry between them was renewed Sunday night at the Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC).

Pistons endured a tough challenge from Victory Valley Royals to come away with a 57–52 points win while Kings blew away Jets 83–66 in the preceding semi–final game of the Linden Amateur Basketball Association (LABA) Festival.

Both Pistons and Kings had met last year in the final of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation’s national Division One championships where Pistons swept Kings in the best–of–three event at the MSC.

Since national centre, Nkossi Gurrick left Pistons for Glands Trucking Service Bulls, the burden of offence was left up to the remaining three–Nevin Grenville, Trevor Profitt and Quincy Jones, from what used to be the ‘Big Four’.

Grenville led Pistons on offence Sunday night with 15 points, scoring nine of the amount from the three–point line. He was left alone on all three occasions and made Royals pay. Jones scored 13 points and Profitt 10 points.

For the opposition, centre Dwayne ‘Sugar’ Roberts ended on 16 points despite a fourth quarter ejection that changed the game. Point guard, Anson Durant scored 11 points in a Herculean effort after Roberts’ omission.

With 2:50 minutes left in the final period, Roberts was hit with his fifth personal foul that restricted him to the team’s bench. The score was 50–45 in favour of Pistons when the national centre was ejected from the game.

Royals drew to within one (51–50) before a Grenville lay–up gave them a three–point edge with the clock winding down. Royals could not convert on possession and instead, they were forced into the cat and mouse situation.

The Victory Valley–based team fouled Jones twice and on both occasions he converted to close out the game. It was obvious that Royals needed the strong offensive presence of Roberts at the end of the game.

In the preceding semi–final, Kings’ Marvin Hartman scored 25 points to help the team advance to the final. Steve Neils Jr. ended with 18 points while Orin Rose and Omally Sampson had 14 and 12 points respectively.

Though the disparity of the final scores of the two sides is clear, the game at halftime told a different tale as Kings were merely ahead 39–36. Jets’ offence completely collapsed in the second half owing to their truncated bench.

Guard Neil Simon was again at the helm with 21 points for Jets while Damian Webster and Allister Webster scored 20 and 11 points respectively for a team that desperately needed players to rotate with its current talent.

The final of the competition is set for Sunday with Jets taking on Royals for third place before the final showdown at the MSC court.