Linden wards show up big

Apr 13, 2010 Sports

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– North play Kitty tonight

By Edison Jefford

The heat is definitely on in the Mackeson National Super Ward Basketball Championship with both wards from Linden showing up big on the second night, providing fans with the perfect dose of competitive and fundamental basketball.
Night two of the inaugural competition was scorching with Kitty/Campbellville tossing their names in the bag for a place in the Final Four and a shot at the $500,000 first place prize with an easy win against East Coast in game one.
East Coast were restricted to the bottom of Group ‘A’ with their second loss of the event, which opened Saturday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall as both Linden teams kept their Final Four berth alive with comfortable wins.
Kitty won 71-62 with Hodayah Stewart putting up 27 points and Darren Thomas 13 with 14 rebounds. East Coast’s, Stephon Gillis scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds with Quacy Newton adding 20 points in the effort.
Christianburg opened the title hunt for the Linden teams with a breezy and disciplined 76-57 points’ win against New Amsterdam. The flare-less Christianburg unit stuck to the basics and the win came without any threats.
Trevor Profitt led on offence for Christianburg with 23 points while Quincy Jones added 18 points and 10 rebounds. Centre, Nkossi Gurrick was a beast in the paint with a clinical display that was worth 12 points and 17 rebounds.
Randy Caesar had 24 points and 12 rebounds for New Amsterdam as an obviously unfit former national guard, Carlos Crandon struggled to 16 points in game two of the three games that were played Sunday night.
The third game was the perfect closure for the night. It brought together two of the best teams in the ‘group of death’, Group ‘B’, which also includes the super-strong Albouystown/Charlestown team, in an entertaining battle.
Central Mackenzie eventually stole the advantage in the last two minutes of the game to go one up in the group with a 67-57 points win against five-time Georgetown Inter-Ward Champions, Wortmanville/Werk-en-Rust.
Point Guard, Steve Neils Jr. produced a classical performance that yielded 20 points with Odley Allen putting up 18 points and 19 rebounds. Marvin Hartman had 10 points for the team that certainly has a shot at winning the championship.
Naylon Loncke did not get the support he was supposed to have gotten from a decent cast as he was the only player in double figures with 28 points. The next best score came from point guard, Travis Burnett, who had seven points.
Central Mackenzie converted most of the offensive boards that forward, Omally Sampson collected early in the game. Neils was the go-to-guy; he fired on all cylinders from the first quarter and led his team to a 17-11 advantage.
Neils opened the second quarter with a three-point jumper, but Loncke immediately responded with a dagger of his own from downtown and finished a coast-to-coast lay-up off a steal from Triston Lake to initiate an offensive run.
Aubrey Smith threw down a big three-pointer that hauled Wortmanville to within one of Central Mackenzie at 22-21 and changed the momentum. Allen immediately returned the thrust on the offensive end, however, with a huge three-pointer.
Central Mackenzie did not allow Wortmanville to steal their initiative. The team raced to a 32-26 points lead at halftime. Wortmanville’s, Royston Siland was not having the ideal defensive game on the inside, and it cost his team.
Loncke was left to shoulder most of the burden on both ends and against quality teams as Central Mackenzie that will not work. Wortmanville went on a run after the break, which got them again to within one (32-31) of the opposition.
However, their defence broke down again and Central Mackenzie hastened to a 41-33 points advantage. Neils shot a high percentage of field goals with both teams battling through the rivalry of an aggressive third quarter.
At the end of the period, Central Mackenzie led 51-47 with a colossal last gasp set up in the final ten minutes. Wortmanville tied up the game at 51 apiece then at 58 before an untimely retirement in the last two minutes.
With Wortmanville looking well-poised down the bottom, the team just stopped playing in the final two minutes, and to make the attempt even more demeaning, Wortmanville swapped all their main players for the bench.
It was as if they knew they had a game to drop and they decided to drop that one as Neils helped Central Mackenzie to an easy ten point lead in a minute and a half, scoring seven of the ten points with consecutive fast break lay-ups.
The national championship continues tonight with South Ruimveldt playing its first game of the competition against East Bank, which lost its first game. North Ruimveldt take on Kitty/Campbellville in the featured game.

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