Guyana survive late scare in male basketball

Nov 21, 2010 Sports

Notwithstanding a near three hours late start Friday night, Guyana’s male basketball team kept their hope of regaining a title they lost last year alive when they defeated French Guiana in their first game of the Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) competition.
Guyana beat French Guiana 69-62 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall to set up a gruelling contest against Suriname tonight in the last event of the Games after Suriname played French Guiana the night before at the same venue in the 2010 Championships.
Scheduled to start at 9pm Friday night, the male basketball game never got underway until about 11:45 pm owing to a mix up in uniform colours. Apparently Guyana’s uniform colour was close to that of the French Guiana team, who protested as a result.
That is not to say the game was ready on time, but to say that the problem caused more delay to a game that was already late. Apparently something went awry earlier in the day as both teams had registered the same colour of uniforms that went undetected.
The sprinkling of spectators, who had to wait until Guyana change its uniform, was held in some suspense as a result. As officials from both the Guyana and French Guiana contingents argued on the uniform issue, some impatient fans headed for the exit.
But the wait was not in vain as Guyana opened their quest to reclaim one of the most sought after title of the Games with an 8-0 run. However, Guyana slumped to a 14-15 points deficit at the end of the first quarter in the game that many had long anticipated.
The lead shifted between Guyana and French Guiana in first eight minutes of the second quarter, but big jumpers from Charles Malderby, Kevin Marcin, Alain Jacinthe and Fiederic Herman shifted the game in French Guiana’s favour.
French Guiana led 34-31 at halftime. Kanhai, who impressed throughout the game, brought the spectators to its feet when he finished a lay-up that was initiated with a round-the-back move on a French defender seconds before the second quarter ended.
Kanhai and his assistant, Richard Mohandatt helped the local team to comfortable lead that was never threatened. Coach Mark Agard went for offence in the third period and it resulted in some offensive runs that were never matched in the game.
The duo helped Guyana to a 10-0 run in the third with Kanhai scoring six of those points and the range of Mohandatt from down town looking dangerous. The experience of Kanhai contributed on both the offensive and defensive ends of the court.
Guyana led 55-40 at the end of the third and though French Guiana threatened that score in what can be called a crucial fourth quarter, Agard was up for the challenge when he went for all of his defensive players intermittently during the final quarter.
Kanhai finished with 26 points and 19 rebounds for a double-double while Linden Fraser added 18 points and Geoffrey La Rose 12 points in the game. Mohandatt, who is generally an offensive player, scored nine points.
Jacinthe, Malderby and Ceylio Beinvenu scored 14, 11 and 10 points respectively for the French Guiana unit, who played Suriname yesterday. Guyana will play Suriname tonight at 9pm to more or less decide who takes home the male basketball title.
Meanwhile, in the cycling segment of the event held early yesterday morning, Suriname dominated the male teams and female individual cycling time trials yesterday on the East Coast of Demerara.
The cyclists braved inclement weather on the public road to complete the male 10km teams’ time trial and the female 6km individual time trial which both ended at the Bel Air Gas Station.
Suriname’s Joann Veldhuizen had the best time for the females finishing in 10:02 while Guyana’s Marcia Dick clocked 10:10 to take second and Naomi Singh, also of Guyana, finished in a 10:17 for the third position.
Only one cyclist per nation was allowed in the top three placing, which gave French Guiana’s Sandy Guittiun the third slot with her time of 10:50.
Suriname’s male team also won the time trials in 13:24:90 while French Guiana was second after finishing in 13:34:09. Guyana slumped to the third position in 13:48:04. The cycling competition heads to the West Bank of Demerara today for the distance events.
(Edison Jefford)

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Guyana survive late scare in male basketball

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