THE Burnham Court was the place to be Sunday night as three matches were played. The games featured one Berbice/Georgetown match-up, one West Side/Georgetown match-up and one U-23 match-up. The matches were each played in four quarters of 10 minutes each and running time. In the first game of the night, TGH Pacesetters cut the wings of the Eagles,winning 50-40 on the back of a 23-point performance by Pacesetter’s prolific guard Nathan Saul.
The game was played up-tempo with Pacesetters jumping out to an early lead and finishing the first half 23-21. Saul was kept at bay with 6 points. The second half started with Pacesetters outscoring their opponents 15-8 in the third quarter and at this point Pacesetters simply held on while scoring 12 points in the last quarter to win the game.For Eagles,Lyndon Johnson led the way with 10 points.
The second game of the night featured Colts U-23 and West Side Warriors Seniors,with the former winning 40-32. For Colts, it was balanced-scoring combined with a constant rotation of players that led to their win over the West Side team.
The game was won in the first quarter with Colts leading 17-2 at the quarter’s close,due to their transition game. The second quarter saw low scoring with Colts scoring 8 points to the West Side’s 5 points to finish the half 25-7.
From there,Colts maintained the lead despite scrappy moments,for a comfortable win. Devon Murray had 13 points in his team’s losing effort with Oneil Heywood finishing with 9 points. For Colts, Jafar Gibbons top scored with 10 while Jonathan Mangra added 8 points.
The last game of the night saw the Colts senior side manhandling a Rose Hall Jammers side 73-57. Colts had their team boosted with new signees, Jermaine Slater and Dennis Niles,and saw good output from the new players.
The first half finished 34-28 in favour of Colts who battled in the post against the physically stronger Berbice team. The game at that point was very even with neither team relenting and Berbice’s main players, Michael Bowen and Jamal Felix,keeping their side in the game. Felix and Bowen would finish with 18 and 12 respectively in the losing effort.
It was equal scoring from the Georgetown-based side with Shelroy Thomas, Jermaine Slater, Kurt Elias, Shane Webster and Stanton Rose scoring 10, 10, 12,11 and 10 respectively to secure the second half 39-27.
Colts won the game due to the low post offense from Webster, Elias and Slater combined with hot midrange and three-point scoring from their guards Thomas and Rose.