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Pre-Championship favorites, North survive early scare
– Albouystown separates itself in National Super Ward
By Edison Jefford
Championship teams are expected to separate themselves from minnows, which is what Albouystown/Charlestown did against East Bank, and what North Ruimveldt could not have done against East Coast in the Mackeson Super Ward.
The opening night of the most lucrative basketball tournament to hit these shores in the New Millennium produced wins for the two Georgetown championship contenders, but one of the wins was far more convincing than the other.
THIS WAS NOT ENOUGH!!! Akeem ‘The Dream’ Kanhai (airborne with ball) has the full compliment of five East Coast defenders, with Horace Hodges (second left in the paint), setting up the wall. But that was not enough to stop Kanhai.
Albouystown/Charlestown battered East Bank 96-59 to clearly make a statement in game one of the Mackeson National Super Ward Basketball Championship Saturday night while Georgetown Inter-Ward Champs, North struggled against East Coast.
In the end, the North Ruimveldt-based team prevailed 65-51 after trailing in the first half of the game at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall. A win is a win, but the Andrew Ifill-less North unit will not be happy with that opening ‘below-par’ performance.
In the first game, Albouystown took command of all four quarters with an attacking offence that included Kevin ‘Two Feet’ Joseph on the front court. Joseph blazed the bottom of the net with five three-point jumpers to finish with 20 points for the team.
Albouystown used its allowance of three guest players to acquire Joseph from Amelia’s Ward in Linden and Akeem ‘The Dream’ Kanhai, also from Linden. Kanhai had 17 points, nine rebounds, six steals and four assist in the mammoth win for Albouystown.
National forward, Dwayne ‘Sugar’ Roberts recorded the first double-double of the tournament with 14 points and 10 rebounds. He also had two ‘big’ blocks that ignited the decent crowd that turned up to support the team at the indoor basketball venue.
Trevor Smith scored 14 points for East Bank while Horace Hodges also had a double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. East Bank is certainly the minnows of Group ‘B’, which also includes Central Mackenzie and Wortmanville/Werk-en-Rust.
North cannot be breathing as easy as Albouystown after their primetime unexpected performance. It was not the kind of effort that captain, Darcel Harris told the media his team would be delivering in the previews to the game.
East Coast led the first quarter, 15-8 and 38-31 at halftime, which obviously surprised North in the first 20 minutes of the game. However, the experience and depth of North prevailed in the last half after they took a two-point 47-45 lead in the third period.
East Coast’s earlier defence collapsed and it was to their detriment that Rudy James was allowed to dominate the boards. He finished with 12 points and nine rebounds with support from Seraiah Clark and Jason Squires, who had eight points each.
Stephon Gillis and Quacy Newton scored 12 points each for the East Coast team that came up against Kitty/Campbellville in the first game of a triple header that was played last night at the same venue. The tournament continues tomorrow night.
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