Latest update December 23rd, 2024 3:40 AM
National B/ball Club C/ship returns tonight
Quincy Jones
Nevin Grenville
– Pistons face Macabbees in feature game
By Edison Jefford
“Once is a fluke, twice is a trend and three times is a habit,” an old proverb says, but, against lots of changes in the dynamics of local basketball can Wismar Pistons prove that their 2008 National Club Championship was not a fluke?
The Linden-based club will begin to answer that question at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall when the Division I National Club Championships return after four years tonight where the Macabbees are an unsuspecting opening opposition.
The Pistons and Macabbees duel is the feature game of a Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) fixture that includes Ravens against New Amsterdam Warriors. Pistons and Ravens will both enter their respective games as favourites.
Pistons were the last team to win a National Club Championship at the Mackenzie Sports Club in Linden four years ago.
They will be reminded that much has changed since then and the changes are likely to impact the outcome of the game.
While there has not been much basketball in Linden, Pistons have been among the leading clubs in the community for quite some time, but as old folks say, “while the cow was eating, the grass has been growing,” which reveals the first dynamic.
Pistons may enjoy the confidence of being the last national club champions but the Macabbees are certainly a team that have improved over the years.
They enter the championship rated third in the City and that alone should mean something to Pistons.
The fact that the club has moved from the bottom of the Division I ranking in Georgetown to the third spot in three years is a dynamic that Pistons cannot take for granted, more so given the fact that they seriously lack competitive basketball since last May.
The feature game may very well come down to who is better able to preserve some mental focus in the final quarter. Pistons have an opportunity to prove that they are natural champions and that could spell out their future in the 2011 Club Championship.
Macabbees were included among the best four clubs in Georgetown ahead of a few other notables in the City.
They will be excited to prove that they belong in the bracket and here is where a little ‘nerve’ can cost them though they have far less to lose.
Once available and active, Pistons will be going to their usual offensive players, forwards Trevor Profitt and Quincy Jones and guard, Nevin Grenville.
The three players forms a major part of the Pistons overall plot in their Championship defence story.
On the other hand, Macabbees have relied heavily on Hodayah Stewart’s prolific scoring over the years.
Pistons may be thinking about shutting him down first, but with so little basketball played prior to this event, the scope for surprises is abundant.
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