Best of three friendly series …
IT may have been a friendly game, but rivalry was in the air and it smelled for miles away in Queens, New York.
Linden struck first blood and with five minutes into the game led the City Boys 12-4. Georgetown regrouped and made strategic substitutions and took the lead at the 7th minute mark in the first half and never looked back. Wilfred Branche of Georgetown was unstoppable in the first half as he showed his low post presence with a mini clinic on any defender that Linden threw his way. Georgetown closed the half with a comfortable 8 points lead at 42-34.
In the second half the City Boys showed no signs of relinquishing their lead and extended their lead by 15 points. Georgetown started early celebrations as they took out Branche and emptied their bench.
The City Boys’ second unit was plagued with turnovers when Dawine ‘Jibba’ Jones came into the game sporting a toothpick in his mouth and racked up 4 consecutive turnovers which the miners converted into 8 points.
Georgetown closed the second half poorly as they failed to score in the final 7 minutes of the game. Starting point guard Travis Williams returned to the game in the final 5 minutes, but blew multiple opportunities to extend Georgetown’s lead as he got fancy with no-look and behind-the-back passes which clearly his team mates weren’t ready for.
For the scores of fans enjoying what had turned out to be an entertaining game, if they didn’t know who referee James Brusche was, they certainly knew him on a first name basis, as he made a controversial five-second violation call on Georgetown’s Ashford Johnson when he tried to inbound the ball with 11 seconds left on the clock with the score 68-67, in favour of the City Boys.
The Miners from Linden called their final timeout and decided to put the game squarely on the shoulders of their hard working centre Laurel Bobb, who drove to the basket with two defenders on his back and scored the winning basket 69-68 as he was also fouled in route to the basket.
With three seconds left on the clock, Laurel Bobb’s missed free throw was rebounded by Georgetown’s Marlon Thornton who initiated a fast break to Travis Williams who was clearly 15 feet ahead of the closest Linden defender and was destined to score the winning basket.
He was hoisted away as the hero who saved Georgetown’s impeccable record against Linden, when he fumbled the perfect pass as his hands and feet were entangled with the ball as game time expired.
The Miners from Linden had four players with double figure points, Oswald Fraser and Odley Alleyne contributed 13 points each while Seon ‘Black Sheep’ Charles and Rockliff Joseph contributed 12 and 10 points respectively.
Local Linden import Rawle Toney did not live up to the hype as his poor defence and 0-12 shooting nightmare had him riding the pine for much of the game.
In a losing effort Wilfred Branche had a game-high 22 points and 4 rebounds while Ronald Alkins chipped in with 12 points.
The officials of the game were Bernard Daniels, Paul Haynes and James Brusche. Scorekeeper and Statisticians were Patrick Haynes and Joel Simon. Photographers were Linden Alphonso and Rudy Wray.
The series now shifts to Brooklyn for game 2 in the best of 3 friendly series.