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Annual Nestle Supligen All Star Basketball Extravaganza
Rose heroics help Linden dethrone G/town
Gillis, Hamid win 3-point shootout and slam dunk respectively
By Rawle Welch
Mark Rose waited until the dying moments of the game to make his impact and he did it in dramatic fashion when he netted a fluky three-pointer that fleetingly stopped the hearts of Georgetown fans, but created ecstatic celebrations in the Linden camp as they made it home by two points for a 79-77 win.
Mark Rose
Rose, who ended with a total of 4 points had earlier scored one of two free throws with less than a minute left in the contest and Linden trailing by one point, before collecting a pass from Akeem Kanhai off a steal on the left side of the court and with time running out threw up an unintentional shot that sounded ‘swoosh’ in the hole, giving them a 78-77 lead with 8 seconds remaining on the game clock.
A back and over call by referee Sherwin Henry on Travis Burnett allowed Linden to regain possession which forced a foul from the host to reclaim control of the ball, but it a little too late as Linden netted another free throw, before the final whistle sounded, giving them a well deserved victory.
It was indeed a dream start to the Annual Nestle Supligen All Star Basketball Extravaganza and obviously would have set up an interesting finale to the much anticipated event which climaxed last evening with the seniors taking to the court along with the junior dunk out and 3-point shooting.
Travis Leitch led all scorers for Linden, dumping in 17 points, Chris Williams added 15 and the classy Kanhai netted 12.
For G/town, point guard John Fraser had the game high 20 points and he was supported by Tyrone Hamid with 15 and Burnett 13.
Steffon Gillis
Linden opened the game in aggressive fashion and quickly raced to an 8-0 lead with Leitch and Kanhai showing some excellent penetrative skills.
However, with the host looking for some special play to ignite them, they eventually found it in Jermaine Slater, who was having a torrid time defending Kanhai and company and was thrown to the floor on at least two occasions prior to his crushing left-handed dunk in traffic off a missed lay-up.
It generated rapturous applause in the arena and provided the energy for G/town that was missing before as they ended the quarter with a 12-5 run to pull within 3, down 16-19.
The visitors came out in the second period attacking the basket and stretched their advantage to 7, 23-16, but G/town stayed close and a reverse lay-up by Hamid tied the scores at 30-30, before a driving lay-up by Williams restored Linden’s lead.
Williams then hit a two-pointer from just within the arc and followed that up on his next possession with a long one from ‘downtown as they swept to a 40-30 advantage. G/town briefly rallied back, but still tracked the visitors 34-47 at the break.
The boys from the Bauxite town maintained healthy 10-point ascendancy at the end of the third stanza, but with the home fans urging their troops on, G/town slowly clawed their way back into the game. They came within one, down 73-74 at the 2:57 mark and even went ahead at one stage, before Rose made his presence felt.
Tyrone Hamid
He first netted one of two from the line and then with the game clock winding down threw up a missile that everyone felt was an air ball, but somehow was precisely guided to the target by heaven knows who and into the hole.
Kanhai, who had a solid all-round game, was later voted the Most Valuable Player by the Organisers.
Earlier, defending 3-point champion Courts Pacesetters Steffon Gillis successfully retained his title, defeating his brother in the final shootout, while Hamid won the slam dunk contest.
Lucky patrons also participated in the half court shot for $100,000 and the shootout for quick bucks.
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