North ease to Mackeson Super Ward Final Four

Apr 19, 2010 Sports

Linden teams remain unbeaten

By Edison Jefford

Despite a few scares in their initial two preliminary games, Georgetown Inter-Ward champions, North Ruimveldt eased into the Mackeson National Super Ward Basketball Championship after their third consecutive victory.

North had the convincing win that was long overdue against New Amsterdam in the first game of a triple-header at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall Saturday night. North won 78-59 to easily advance to the semi-final of the mega contest.

Central Mackenzie’s forward, Marvin Hartman (left) goes up for a three-point jumper but the much more diminutive point guard, Aubrey Austin confronts him in the featured game of the Mackeson National Super Ward Saturday night.

Guard Ryan Stephney came good with 24 points while captain, Darcel Harris had 15 and Seraiah Clark 14 points. Ryan Gullen also featured on the score sheets with 12 points that helped place North among the tournament’s prize money.

New Amsterdam’s Carlos Crandon had 17 points and Theo Bess 10 points. The loss was the third for the team, which basically placed them out of Final Four contention as Group ‘A’ seemed more clear cut than the ‘group of death’, Group ‘B’.

Linden’s Christianburg also registered a win, which was their second in Group ‘A’ when they outclassed Kitty/Campbellville 63-51 to keep their semi-final hopes alive. North is also in Group ‘A’ and a clash with Christianburg seems imminent to decide who tops the group and who plays the second ranked team in Group ‘B’.

Christianburg’s offence clicked with the silky centre Nkossi Gurrick dominating the paint and adding a new dimension to his game with the 15-foot jumper that gave him 15 points and 10 rebounds for his second consecutive double-double.

Guard, Nevin Grenville also had a good game with 15 points as forwards, Trevor Profitt and Quincy Jones, added 13 and 10 points respectively. Christianburg has won their two games with comfort and should win another to reach the semis.

Hodayah Stewart continued his prolific scoring for Kitty with 14 points, adding to his 27-point performance in the first game for the team last week. Those stats will become important in the race for the tournament’s MVP. Devon Bacchus added 11 points and the lanky forward, Shane Webster had eight points.

The featured game was a watered-down version of a headliner with Group ‘B’s Central Mackenzie blowing out East Bank to also keep their Final Four expectations on course in the toughest group of most lucrative basketball tournament in the New Millennium.

Central Mackenzie breezed to an 87-62 points win that placed them second in the group that also has new championship favourites, Albouystown/Charlestown and five-time Georgetown Inter-Ward finalist, Wortmanville/Werk-en-Rust and South Ruimveldt.

Steve Neils Jr. scored 26 points for Central Mackenzie and sharp-shooting guard, Orin Rose landed 16 points. Lawrence De Costa added his name to the score sheets with 12 points as the other main players, nationals, Marvin Hartman and Jason Alonzo had a more defensive game.

Desmond Chin and Mark Richards had 18 and 17 points respectively for East Bank, which is the only minnow in ‘Group B’.

The tournament continued last night at the same venue with teams vying for a place in the semis and a shot at the $500,000 first place prize. The second place team gets $250,000 while third and fourth will pocket $150,000 and $75,000 respectively.