Inter-Ward down to Super-Eight playoffs

May 16, 2009 Sports

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Final Four to be decided this weekend

By Edison Jefford
If Sherwin Roberts continues his surgical sharp shooting, the South Ruimveldt ‘swingman’ will be difficult to guard this weekend in the Super-Eight playoffs of the HJTV and Lens Craft Inter-Ward Basketball Championships.
After his six of eight threepointers that led South to an emphatic 9168 points victory against Prospect/Grove, Roberts, who is also known as ‘Paxon’, simply stated that he has returned, “I’m back”, he told Kaieteur Sport.
The former junior national standout made light work of Prospect’s defence after rotating the ball at will beyond the parameter and taking the threepoint jumper off guest player from Linden, guard Steve Neils Jr. dribble penetration.

With Roberts manning the critical shooting guard and occasional small forward positions and Dane Kendall ‘killing’ on the post with Neils at point, South played with the serenity of a championship team that will be a definite problem.
Roberts ended with 21 points, 18 of which came from beyond the threepoint arc, while a more restrained Kendall finished with 17 points. Neils played his role and came out with 14 points as Clarence Bennett added 10.
Prospect shopped Victory Valley Royals’ Orlando Glasgow and another Lindener, Mark Richards for the game but they could not stop the clinical South Ruimveldt team that will now play Kitty/Campbellville in tomorrow’s quarter-final.

Clarence Blackman scored 13 points for Prospect/Grove while Glasgow had 12 points to lead the team on offence. Lance Gouveia chalked up 10 points, supported by Richards with 10, as the team joined the tournament’s corpse.
Guyhoc/Tucville may have thought that the second game was in the bag but the opposing Alberttown/Bourda had other ideas. The Derek Alphonso-led team kept Ryan ‘Showtime’ Melville off the ball and the rest is now history.

From the beginning of the game it was clear: if ‘Showtime’ was not allowed to finish his heroics, Guyhoc would have needed an alternative and since they did found none potent enough, Alberttown easily walked away with victory.
Alberttown won 7858 after restricting Melville to only nine points. The losing guard was forced to take pressure jumpers from threepoint range since good defence kept him from penetrating the key where he is often very acrobatic.

Guard, Jacob Lowe scored 15 points in Alberttown’s tally while centre Yannick Wade had 14; Yannick December scored 12 points that included two ‘onehand’ dunks ande Lewis James and Bevon Gordon registered 11 each.
Rawle White finished with 18 for Guyhoc while Richard Braithwaite had 15 in the final first round game. Pregame ballots had cast the game in favour of Guyhoc/Tucville with their large Pepsi Sonics base.
With all of the minor teams out of the tournament, leaving the eight championship contenders, each game this weekend is likely to attract the buzz of a final because of the teams’ quality in the Super-Eight.

Defending champions, North Ruimveldt come up against an organised Plaisance team in the first game tonight, while Albouystown/Charlestown play Lodge/Meadowbrook in the second game of the quarter-final ‘win-or-go-home’ round.
Darcel Harris told this newspaper that his North team can win without Trinidad and Tobagobased national forward, Andrew Ifill, who is reportedly scheduled to leave the country after the quarter-final phase of the competition.

The fact that Ifill will play tonight poses another question: can Plaisance win with Ifill on North’s roster? Captain Stephon Gillis told this newspaper: “definitely yes”, and so with that in mind, the game is definitely on tonight.
Plaisance’s guest player, New Amsterdam’s Flynn Hinds, though he has the strength and physical ability, has a Herculean task guarding Ifill. His minutes are expected to be major since his prime assignment will be the national forward.

Plaisance is booming with confidence ahead of the game and North is looking to repeat in the return of the marquee calendar event. Which way will it go? Who will make the Final Four cut? It can go either way but tonight will decide.
The second game features Dwayne ‘Sugar’ Roberts and Alwyn Bellamy against Lodge in another huge challenge. Albouystown will enter this game as favourites, since notables on the Lodge roster are famous for choking in big games.

Roberts is a ‘big game’ player and Bellamy is seasoned, but the opposing Mortimer Williams and Fabian Johnson are out to prove that they can get their team past strong opposition and into the money of the contest.
The winner of the competition takes home $500,000 while second place bags $300,000; third place $100,000 while fourth place gets $50,000.

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