GUYANA will open their campaign at this year’s Centrobasket U-17 Championship in the Dominican Republic against Caribbean Champions Bahamas, in a rematch of last year’s Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) U-16 final at 13:00hrs.
The Bahamas, considered the best basketball nation in the Caribbean, defeated Guyana by 27 points (84-57) when the two met at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on July 10, 2016.
“We think that the only way that we could compete is by being aggressive on the defence,” head coach Lugard Mohan told the media prior to the team’s departure for Santa Domingo yesterday.

“We did what we could with the time we had. Our preparation was based on conditioning, defensive mentality; that’s our game plan basically. I think we’re going to be at a disadvantage in terms of height, so that’s why we focused on our aggressiveness,” said Mohan.
Distinctly, Guyana will be undersized in comparison with the other teams in the tournament, especially those in their group (Bahamas, Mexico and Puerto Rico).

Asked how prepared, especially mentally, is the team, given the fact that they understand that they’re going to be outmatched with regard to height, Mohan noted, “I think we’re 50% there and that’s one of the things we have to work on, and that’s a work in progress. So when we get over to the Dominican Republic, we’re going to be looking at the last scrimmage against Colts which would have been a good test for some of the teams we’re going to be facing in the tournament.”

Mohan still stressed that Guyana would’ve been better equipped if they had the services of Jordan Alphonso, who played an important role in the team’s success at the CBC tournament last year, but, stressed that the players are prepared to work extra hard to achieve their goal.
Apart from wanting to finish in the top three of the Centrobasket tournament and qualify for the FIBA U-18 tournament next year, Mohan opined that “the biggest take from the tournament is development”.

“Once you’re in basketball, you’re always a student, so development will be the biggest take from competing at the tournament,” said Mohan.
After today’s game against the Bahamas, Guyana will face Puerto Rico tomorrow at 15:00hrs, and then close off their group-play against Mexico on Friday July 28 at 15:00hrs.
Teams will play in round-robin format for three days, after which, the top two teams from each group will advance to the next phase, where the first-place team of Group A will oppose the second-place in Group B and vice versa.

The winners of the semifinals will advance to the ‘gold medal match’, while the losers will play for the bronze of the continental event.
The top three teams from the tournament will qualify to the FIBA U-18 Americas Championship 2018, to be played in St Catharines, Canada, June 11-17, 2018.
Nigel Bowen, Tramine Brown, Kelmar Carmichael, Akeem Crandon, Shamar France, Roydon Glasgow, Jether Harris, Andrew Johnson, Jermaine King, Kevon Wiggins, Anthony Yanson and Jahleel Young are members of Team Guyana, with Mohan being assisted by US-based Kenneth Avent.