By Daniel Haynes

THE first game of the DC Jammers goodwill tour against the Dynas Ravens provided an exciting contest, being decided in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter. The game finished 74-69 in favour of the Jammers. However, the final score did not reflect the game.
It was played at an up-tempo pace with Jammers pushing the ball up the court whenever possible and Ravens scoring most of their points in the paint, with Jermaine Slater being a rebounding beast.
Contributing to the up-tempo style of play was the inability of Ravens to stop the dribble-drive penetration of the visitors’ guards.

Top-scorer for the game, Semaj Inge, was the main threat off the dribble scoring most of his 21 points with drives to the ring. Captain Glen Stokes and combo guard Rodney Mickens also punched the lane-creating offence.
The first quarter saw Ravens coming out strong and beating the Jammers in the paint with quick touch passes from guards to bigs for easy layups. The driving and transition game of Jammers proved to be an equaliser and the first quarter finished in favour of Jammers 18-16.
Going into the second quarter, Inge again continued his dribble drive and worked in tandem with Guyana-born Winston Robinson who punched the lane splitting the defence to throw down a left-handed jam. Ravens continued their solid work in the paint, but found themselves down by five points going into the half at 36-31.
The second half saw an offensive explosion from Ravens, while Jammers went cold from the field missing most of their attempts. Ryan Stephney hit big shots to give the Ravens the lead and was backed up by Dominic Vincente and Nikkoloi Smith.
The spark came at the end of the third quarter for Jammers, with Keron Mckenzie hitting his first three from the left wing and then his second from the same spot with mere seconds on the clock ending the quarter at 55-50 in favour of Ravens.
The fourth quarter saw Jammers tighten their defence and swing the ball more and the injection of combo guard Rodney Mickens brought energy to the team. Ravens continued their battle to counter the energy of Jammers with physical play and the increased physicality went unchecked by the referees.
This contributed to the frustration of fans as well as Jammers players. Coming down to three minutes left, Mickens hit one shot from way behind the three-point line to cut the Ravens lead to 2 and then a three to take the lead at 68-67. Free throws were then crucial down the stretch as the Jammers took it home.
Semaj Inge scored 21 points, Keron Mckenzie had 12 with Mickens adding 10. For Ravens, Jermaine Slater and Nikkoloi Smith had 13 points each while Ryan Stephney had 12.
According to Jammers captain Glen Stokes, “We just had to play through, they been playing together for a while so we had to counter that.”
And according to Inge, “I know I could beat them off the drive so I’ll just keep doing that.”
Mickens and Mckenzie expressed the same sentiments, stating that they just took the shot given to them and their confidence was high.