Ravens embarrass Pacesetters twice in one night

Dec 01, 2009 Sports

GABA Finals inadvertently reduced to a lime

BACK ON TOP!!! Ravens Basketball Club pose for Kaieteur Sport following their emphatic win against Court Pacesetters in the GABA First Division Final Sunday night.

By Edison Jefford

Ravens inflicted such a thrashing on Courts Pacesetters Sunday night in the First Division Final that even Pacesetters’ Head Coach, Robert Cadogan wished he was somewhere else as he sat lost and hapless on the team’s bench.
It seemed as though the complacent, lethargic and down right mediocre basketball from a team that is ranked number one in Georgetown found its way unto the bench and as some embarrassing consequence, Cadogan became quiet.
The result was an 88-71 beating that could have been worse if Ravens did not slow down the pace of the game and opted to smartly use the clock after assuming a commanding 20 points lead late in the fourth quarter of the final.
But before then, the atmosphere at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall changed as enthusiasts signed out of the game at the end of a third quarter that Ravens led 64-44, and as was the case on preceding nights, the venue hosted a lime.
No one seemed interested in a game that was clearly one-sided in Ravens favour, and not to say that they were not right, since Pacesetters tried absolutely nothing to at least create an interesting game deserving of being called a final.
Cadogan was beaten to a pulp when his confidence in former junior national point guard, Travis Burnett backfired to hand him a heavy loss. It was his second defeat of the night at the hands of the same team. It was double jeopardy.
In addition to Dwayne ‘Sugar’ Roberts, Ravens have also re-acquired the talented guard, Stephon ‘Penny’ Henry, who teamed up with Rodwell ‘Kobe’ Fortune and Darcel Harris at the top and literally obliterate Pacesetters’ defence.
Roberts had 17 points at the end of the game and Fortune had 15 points to lead the team’s offence, while ‘big man’ Ryan Gullen and Marlon Rodrigues chipped in with 10 points a-piece for them. Harris ended with seven points.
Guard Stephon Gillis put in a Herculean effort for Pacesetters with 20 points while centre Horace Hodges had nine points.
Pacesetters seemed out of sorts from the first quarter as it became clearer with time that they were dumbfounded.
After Ravens went up 22-18 at the end of the initial period, Aubrey Smith was tossed into the game for Pacesetters and he gave them what they needed at the time, balance with six straight points that put them on par with Ravens.
However, Ravens stepped up their defence between the seventh and third minutes of their second period and created six consecutive turnovers that they converted to go up 31-23 in the time before turning on the offensive pressure.
All Pacesetters’ frustrated attempts in that desperate time produced zero results as Ravens placed their feet on the gas and raced to a 37-25 points’ lead.
Pacesetters though, grinned to a nine-point halftime deficit of 42-33 points.
The last half of the game spelled offensive disaster for Pacesetters as a struggling Burnett became the ‘chosen one’ ahead of Smith. The rest is history but the confidence and move to go with Burnett could have been the sore point.
Smith gave Pacesetters the offence that got them back into the game in the second quarter and was pulled from the game. Conversely, Burnett continued his failed heroics as he was constantly caught faking cutting team-mates to go alone.
On one occasion, Burnett had an easy and fundamental option to Gillis for a lay-up but he chose to take on three defenders instead of giving up the ball for the points.
That constant trend created apathetic reactions from his team-mates.
Many times Smith watched with dismay and shook his head, knowing fully well if he had a chance, maybe, the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Federation (GABA) would have had a real First Division Final instead of a lime.
Earlier, Ravens secured a 71-69 points’ win over Pacesetters in the Third Division Final with Tyrone Hamid scoring 24 points for Ravens as Delon Davidson and Marlon Haynes supported with 14 points each in the preceding game.
Travis Williams scored 16 points for Pacesetters and Drexel Amsterdam had 15 points in a more competitive encounter than the senior showdown.
The presentation ceremony and after-lime will be held at Intersection Bar tonight.