Ruthless W/W sweep South Ruimveldt

May 26, 2009 Sports

– reach Inter-Ward Grand Finale

By Edison Jefford

THE SWEEPERS!!! From left, Naylon Loncke, Aubrey Smith and Triston Lake could not find the actual broom they brought to celebrate, so they resorted to celebrating with a mop that was substituted for the broom.

Naylon ‘Fluffy’ Loncke was overlooked in 2007 when national selectors met to decide on the local representatives for the Caribbean Championships in Puerto Rico, citing concerns over the national player’s weight and physical fitness.
The former shooting guard that has moved up to the forward position endured criticism to the extent that he was even considering taking up an assistant coaching post with his club, Courts Pacesetters–he went to Linden as coach in 2008.
But that was clearly not what he enjoyed and therefore Loncke wanted to prove that he is as good as any player in his position in Guyana. There can hardly be any doubt after his performances in the Inter-Ward championships.
Loncke has re-emerged as one of the country’s premier ‘ball’ players with the demolition of every team that has challenged Wortmanville/Werk-en-Rust (W/W) in the 2009 HJTV and Lens Craft Inter-Ward Basketball Championships.
His W/W team is the only assimilation to have advanced to the Grande Finale seemingly without problems. The team swept South Ruimveldt with a clinical and calculated 71-62 points win at the Sports Hall Sunday night.
Loncke scored 17 points and had nine rebounds while forward Triston Lake also finished with 17 points adorned with five steals. National forward, Royston Siland helped with 13 points and 13 rebounds for a supporting double.
In Kaieteur Sport’s pre-game analysis, the psychological advantage of W/W was noted as one of the biggest hurdles for South in the second game of the best-of-three series after they played from behind to beat South in game one.
The mental motivation was completely missing from the second game as South balanced both offence and defence with W/W in game two. The team played the final two minutes of the game as if they lacked the confidence to win.
Steve Neils Jr. scored 20 points while Clarence Bennett added 12 points. Shooting guard Kurt Sunich finished with 10 points while sharp shooting forward, Sherwin Roberts held a massive 20 rebounds without a double figure score.
The W/W offence fired from jump ball as the team raced to a 9-2 lead before South came back to equalise at nine. Both teams traded points and South came out with a single digit 14-13 lead after the end of the inaugural period.
South faced mixed offensive fortunes in the second quarter after dominating the first five minutes to go up 20-13. Bennett was the primary leader in this 7-0 run after finishing a few ‘old-school’ up-and-under lay-ups and jump shots.
But W/W came to play basketball and obviously wanted South to know that they have to do the same to beat them. In the wink of an eye the scores were again levelled at 20 then W/W continued on their run and went up 25-20.
Lake landed a big three point jump shot in the wake of South’s decent interior defence. In the general scheme of things, W/W ended up outscoring South 16-12 in the second period as they took a 29-25 points lead at the halftime break.
As various dance groups entertained fans and the GT&T and Guinness promotions got on the way, South thought about a strategy of maintaining offensive advantages with former national coach, Phillip George in their locker room.
The strategy was clear in the third quarter: South counterattacked on offence and defence while waiting for the open run. In the first five minutes of the period, the game was even and well poised with scores locked at 35 points.
Sunich landed a big three-pointer at the buzzer in the third quarter to level the game for a fourth occasion at 47 points at the end of the period. South played according to script but somehow lost the plan in the final minutes.
Loncke was sporadically involved in the first three quarters of the game as he directed his team’s plan from the bench. It was obvious that he was satisfied with the way things went and it was time for change in the last period.
The final quarter belonged to Loncke. The forward returned to his sharp shooting form in the last five minutes when he drilled a three-pointer from the corner to extend his team’s lead to 55-51 with 4:50 left on the game clock.
But the game was far from over when Neils retaliated with a three-pointer to put his team within striking distance, down 55-54. W/W were there before in the first game and that experience came to the fore in a ruthless manner.
Lake scored two free shots and Loncke finished a sweet left-handed drive that propelled them to a 61-56 points lead with two minutes to play. South faced elimination and Neils missed both free throws to bring his team within a shot.
The score was 67-62 in favour of W/W when Neils missed with 47 seconds left in the big game. The offensive and defensive endurance was just not there for South and in the end they went out 2-0 in the series with a quality team.