GABA Mackeson Super Ward tourney …
GEORGETOWN Inter-Ward Champs North Ruimveldt now sit at the top of Group ‘A’ in the GABA Mackeson National Super Wards after clinching a hard-fought 64-54 win over Kitty/Campbellville on night three of the ten-team tournament. In the opening game of the double-header, South Ruimveldt handed East Bank their second loss of the tournament, winning 87-73. After their opening game against East Coast, North’s game seemed a bit off-key as compared to their showing last year. They played without Trinidad and Tobago-based star forward Andrew Ifill.
Kitty also stopped East Coast on Sunday evening and went into Tuesday’s game on a high and though they started a little slowly, trailing 20-13 at the end of the first quarter, they rebounded well in the second by playing some stifling defence that saw North Ruimveldt scoring only seven points in the quarter, as the first half evened with the two sides tied on 27 points.
But while Kitty did their damage in the second quarter, North took complete control of the third, thanks to a barrage of turnovers made by the Kitty players especially their point guards.
Darcel Harris and Ryan Stephney were very forceful in the back court and while Kester Gomes sometimes got his way around them, Laurel Caleb found it difficult to do the same and North Ruimveldt capitalised well and scored 23 easy points in the quarter as compared to ten by Kitty/Campbellville.
50-37 was the score at the end of the penultimate period and it took Kitty approximately five minutes to register their first point of the fourth and final quarter and by this time, North were already in the driver’s seat.
The fightback started on the defensive end with Darren Thomas and their Linden guest player Shane Webster taking command of the paint, Hodyah Stewart, Devon Bacchus with his thunderous baseline two-handed dunk and Webster’s coast-to-coast one-handed slam.
Kitty came within eight points with just over a minute remaining but didn’t have enough fire power left to close in as North held on to chalk up another win and an almost certain place in the final four.
Damien Liverpool topped North’s scoring tally with 14 points, followed by Ryan Gullen with 13 points and ten rebounds.
Thomas had a game-high 15 points for the losers while Webster had a well played nine points, picked up four steals, grabbed 10 rebounds and two blocked shots.
Meanwhile, South Ruimveldt had to fight off a hungry-looking East Bank unit to chalk up their first win. East Bank were in a must-win situation if they want to keep their heads afloat in Group ‘B’ which is called the group of death with most of the top teams in the tournament.
The Sherwin Roberts-led South team led by just three points at halftime (21-19) but East Bank begun to argue among themselves at a time when they were still in the game.
Roberts bagged a double-double for South Ruimveldt (14 points, 13 rebounds) while Fabian Johnson also netted 14 points and picked up six rebounds.
Point guard Aubrey Austin had 14 points for East Bank and was supported by Clarence Blackman (11) and Trevor Smith (10).