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Ravens blow-out Pacesetters again
Linden’s juniors top Georgetown
By Edison Jefford
Ravens threw complaints about them being the recipient of favourable referees’ decisions in their 17-point triumph against Courts Pacesetters last November to the wind when they thrashed the same opposition by a bigger margin Sunday night.
Ryan Gullen
Dwayne Roberts
After much scepticism over having FIBA accredited referees, Lugard Mohan and Aubrey Younge, who were former Ravens frontline players, officiate in the game, a decision was taken to have two other referees do the grudge contest.
However, changing the officials did not change the result of the game and Ravens walked away this time with a heavy 20-point 69-49 win. The rule, as this writer had noted before, is that your best referees must do your best games.
Big-man Ryan Gullen was unstoppable on the inside for Ravens, scoring 16 points for the best figures in his team. Point Guard, Rodwell Fortune scored 12 points while an inspired Dwayne Roberts and Kevin Lawrence had 11 points each.
Centre Kurt Elias topped for Courts with 16 points while Royston Siland scored 12 points and Travis Burnette 10 points for the team that was never afforded the opportunity to lead in their second consecutive heavy loss to the Ravens.
In the absence of national point guard, Darcel Harris and forward Damian Liverpool there were boots to fill, but the manner in which Ravens went about their business suggests that they were prepared to completely demolish Pacesetters.
Rodwell Fortune
Ravens came out aggressively with Roberts and Gullen controlling defensive boards, and with Fortune adequately filling the vacant starting guard post. The combination posted an early 13-3 lead in the first quarter of a gruelling match-up.
Pacesetters had a mini recovery with a 6-0 run that brought them to within four before an important substitution with Stephon ‘Penny’ Henry entering the game for Ravens made a major offensive difference near the end of the initial period. Ravens went up 22-10 after the first quarter and switched up the offensive combination in the second quarter in a tactical move geared at increasing the pace of the game. The team went with their four guards-two point and two shooting.
Immediately Marlon Rodrigues drained a three-point jumper on his introduction while an energetic Henry and Fortune pressed for steals. Lawrence, who shifts at both the forward and guard positions, was equally involved in the attack.
Pacesetters defence broke down and an open court running game produced a 34-17 points lead for Ravens with four minutes left before halftime. Turnovers plagued the Courts unit in that time and at the midway break Ravens were up 39-25.
It was obvious that Pacesetters went back to the drawing boards during the break because they came out with much more discipline in the third period. The number one ranked club moved the ball around and looked for more open attempts. As a result, the first three minutes of that period saw them chop the lead to 10 points with 39-29 but Lawrence drilled a three-point jumper that gave the momentum back to Ravens with time running out on the Courts-sponsored team.
Pacesetters’ last chance for a recovery came when Gullen missed a basic attempt from an entertaining behind-back pass from Henry in the lane. They had a 4-0 run that gave them their only single digit deficit of the second half at 44-36.
However, Ravens continued to be consistent at both ends of the court and found a way to sneak seven points in the last two minutes of the third quarter. The offensive run gave the team a 51-39 points lead with 10 minutes left in regulation.
The old proverb says don’t change what is working and that is exactly what Ravens went back to in the last period. The team went for their super fast guards with both Roberts and Gullen inside.
Their tactic was to exploit fast-break plays. It was not long into the quarter that that exactly happened. Every missed attempt from the tiring Pacesetters squad found its way out to the wing where Fortune waited to rush to the offensive end for undefended and easy points.
It was the initiation of a blow-out and second in a row for Pacesetters that really signalled a changing of the guard in Georgetown. The next stop for Ravens is to top the League, so that the ranking will have them as number one in the City.
In the preceding game, Linden’s Under-23 team won 92-83 against Georgetown, which is also their second consecutive win. Orin Rose scored 29 points while Akeem Khanai made 24 points; Shane Webster 13 and Chris Williams 11 points.
Yannick Wade led the scoring for the home team with 25 points while Tyrone Hamid had 20 points. Travis Burnett scored 13 and Delon Davidson 10 points to commence the 2010 Basketball Season in Georgetown in a grandeur manner.
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