Raiders, Bulls send top seeds Kings, Jets crashing out of C/ship

Nov 17, 2012 Sports

BOSAI Minerals Group Guyana Inc Open Challenge Basketball…

Pair to contest final tomorrow

Retrieve Raiders scored a fascinating 48-44 win over the top seeded Kashif and Shanghai Kings, while Half Mile Bulls stunned the second ranked Amelia’s Ward Jets 49-48 on Tuesday night to qualify to contest the final of the inaugural BOSAI Minerals Group (Guyana) Inc sponsored Open Challenge basketball championship, which will be played tonight.

Sheldon Noel

A keenly contested match-up between the two sides is anticipated tonight and gauging from the semifinal results Raiders and Bulls are expected to pull out all the stops to win the contest. The third place game between Kings and Jets will precede the final.
Playing in the semifinals on Diwali Night at the Mackenzie sports Club hard court, the sixth ranked Retrieve Raiders survived the ejection of their leading player, national centre Dwayne ‘Brown’ Sugar Roberts, to turn in a scintillating fourth quarter display, while the fifth ranked Bulls demonstrated excellent team play to hold off the Jets in what were low scoring affairs in front of an appreciative crowd.
The Raiders were led to their win behind Roberts’ top score of 11 points, while he was admirably supported by guards Sheldon Noel and Anson Durant each with eight and forward Louis James with seven as Alexander Rose chipped in with five.
Kings could only blame themselves as they led by four going into the final quarter 34-30 after controlling the scores at the end of the first quarter 10-9 and 24-19 as guard Marvin Hartman returned to form in that game high 16 pints as guard Steve Neils, Omally Sampson and Abdullah Hamid each scored seven points and forward Curtis Gravesande had six in a losing cause.
In the other game, guards Michael Turner and Sean Easton produced the top scores for the Bulls with 10 apiece and Travin Dryden contributed eight for the winners, while the Webster brothers Allister and Shane had 13 and 12 respectively, to lead the scoring for the Jets.