Guyana men to open against Aruba, women to face Colombia on day one

Nov 01, 2022 Sports

-FIBA 3×3 AmeriCup to bounce Nov. 4 in Miami

By Rawle Toney

Kaieteur News – The highly anticipated FIBA 3×3 AmeriCup tournament will bounce off on Friday, November 4 in Miami, Florida, with Guyana’s male and female teams in action on opening day at the AT&T East Plaza in the FTX Arena – home of the Miami Heat.

While the country’s women’s side will play in the main draw of the tournament, the men’s team must first compe

Nikkoloi Smith will make his international 3×3 debut at the FIBA AmeriCup tournament.

te in the qualifying round.

On Friday, the team of Delroy and Gordon James, along with Nikkoloi Smith and Shelroy Thomas, will come up against Aruba from 9:55 am.

The Guyanese men, on Saturday, will face Ecuador (9:50 am) and Haiti (11:05 am).

Guyana will bank heavily on the services of Delroy James, who has a wealth of experience playing professionally.

James has suited up for the likes of AEK Athens and Promitheas Patras, where he won the FIBA Champions League (2018), FIBA Intercontinental Cup (2019) and Greek Super Cup (2020).

He had a sterling performance for Guyana at the 2023 World Cup qualifiers, leading the team in scoring, rebounds and blocks.

James is also coming off an exceptional performance at the recently-concluded The Basketball Tournament (TBT) where he suited up for Americana for Autism, reaching the finals but was beaten by Blue Collar U.

With only one team advancing from the qualifiers, Guyana will need to finish on top for a chance to face Canada and Mexico in Group C of the Main Draw which will also be played on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the women’s quartet of Kesann Charles, Tamara Hunter, Kennesha Leacock and Jamaicy Ogle will play their first match on Friday against Colombia in the second match of the women’s tournament from 12:50 pm.

The Guyanese women’s final match on day one will see them coming face-to-face with the tournament’s defending champions, the USA.

Led by this year’s Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) second-overall pick NaLyssa Smith, sixth overall pick Lexie Hull and seventh overall picked Veronica Burton, the USA are once again considered the favourites to win the title.

Charles and Hunter are the only two players returning from the team that excited the inaugural tournament last year.

Guyana will have to do without the services of professional ‘baller’ Joy Brown and the nifty Jada Mohan who were initially in the squad, same as Mariam McKenzie, but are out due to unavailability.

The FIBA 3×3 AmeriCup tournament will wrap up on Sunday with the quarter-finals, semi-finals, third-place match-up and finals.

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