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Quest in NLE C/ship begins tonight
– Ravens, Pistons set to advance
Ryan Stephney
By Edison Jefford
Whether the ‘small axes can cut down the big trees’ will certainly be known tonight when arguably two of the finest teams in the Next Level Entertainment (NLE) Championships face minnows from Linden and Georgetown.
Darcel Harris
The quest begins at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall at 7pm tonight with Linden’s Wismar Pistons taking on Georgetown’s Demerara Panthers while City side, Dyna’s Ravens come up against New Ballers in the featured game.
Current national basketball champions, Pistons, will undoubtedly enter the game against Panthers as favourites while inaugural NLE title holders, Ravens, share the same delight against the lowly–ranked New Ballers. Pistons’ coach, Raphael Damon, however, cautioned against a tranquil approach since his team has ‘vulnerabilities’.
Nevin Grenville
Damon said that he will not underestimate any team because of Georgetown’s obvious home court advantage.
“Basically we are going out there to just continue our good run. We always show a little vulnerability in knock–out tournaments but recently I noticed that we have been playing with more cohesion,” the Head Coach said yesterday.
Ryan Gullen
Damon indicated that the club is looking at the ‘sliver lining behind the grey cloud’ in the competition. “We don’t play according to rankings, we just want to execute practically and technically in the game,” he informed.
As regular, Pistons will rely heavily on Quincy Jones, Trevor Profitt and Nevin Grenville for their offence with the support cast helping on defence. But the national champions are to be pressed in the game despite their advantage.
Panthers’ Coach, Derrick Alphonso has an acute knowledge of the game but whether his arsenal will give adequate support is questionable. What is known is that the coach will try everything available to prevent Pistons’ win.
The game will set the tone for an animated feature game where New Ballers’ Head Coach Floyd Martindale is expected to perform. Martindale has already indicated that his young team will not be a push over against Ravens.
Quincy Jones
It will be interesting to witness how Martindale rival the expertise of Darcel Harris, Ryan Stephney, Ryan Gullen, Damian Liverpool, Seraiah Clarke, Kevin Lawrence and a host of other quality national players on Ravens’ roster.
According to Ravens’ Head Coach, Lugard Mohan, the game will be used as a stepping stone to advance deeper in the tournament. Mohan said that he cannot comment on the game because he does not know the opposition.
“We have to play every game as it comes to win the championship. This is one of those stepping stones. We did some improvements on our zone defence where we still have some work in that department,” Mohan said yesterday.
The former national point guard and Caribbean Basketball Confederation All–star led the Ravens to the top of the Georgetown League after finishing with one loss in an identical record with Georgetown nemesis, Courts Pacesetters.
The winner of the NLE Basketball Championships will bundle a whopping $300,000 first place prize in the biggest purse allotted in the sport while second place gets $200,000, third place $100,000 and fourth place $50,000.
In addition to those cash incentives, awards for the best shooter, best defender and Most Valuable Player (MVP) will be handed out. A halftime show that features novelty events was also initially part of the tournament arrangement.
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