Mackeson Super Ward basketball …
Linden wards and North Ruimveldt on show tonight
COACHES say that free throws win games but it’s a common statement which was always taken for granted up until last Thursday evening when Charlestown/Albouystown point guard Kevin ‘Two Feet’ Joseph sank four shots from the charity line at a crucial point in the game to send his side romping to a 80-66 points win in overtime against Wortmanville/Werk-en-Rust.
It was by far the most exciting match of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association Mackeson Super Ward Basketball Championships and to top it off, the game surpassed all the media hype. On the same card, East Coast chalked up their first win of the tournament by defeating New Amsterdam 72–62 but the game was simply overshadowed by the night’s feature game that delivered teeth-grinding basketball from the blast of the first whistle.
Werk-en-Rust seemed to have been in control of the court with just over a minute and a half remaining in the fourth, being up by 12 points when Joseph was fouled going to the ring by Clement Brusch who felt that the referee made an unjust call and his flare up resulted in a technical foul and four shots awarded to a Lindener, who is one of two guest players on Charlestown/Albouystown side.
With everything depending on him, Joseph comfortably completed the four-point play and it was no looking back from then.
Charlestown had held a one-point lead at halftime (31-30) but thanks to some serious misuse of players and some clumsy coaching on their behalf, the ‘ghetto boys’ as they call themselves, fell prey to some stifling defence by Werk-en-Rust who went up by ten points (50-40) at the end of the third quarter.
They were up by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter but a run, led by Rodwell ‘Kobe’ Fortune, their ‘back bone’ Dwayne ‘Brown Sugar’ Roberts, Akeem ‘the Dream’ Kanhai and Joseph – a combination that was being called for by the Charlestown supporters for most part of the game, caused their undoing.
Fortune, who ended the with 20 points supercharged by his long time on the bench, picked up some critical steals for his side and converted many of them or found the sure hands of Kanhai who netted a game-high 21 points or Roberts (14 points, 18 rebounds, four blocks and three steals) and was a beast in the paint.
Loncke and his boys managed to score only 12 points in the final quarter as compared to the 22 points scored by the ‘ghetto boys’ and to add insult to injury, they seemingly once again dropped their guards and walked it out just like they did against Central Mackenzie and didn’t put up a challenge. In the overtime they only scored four points.
Travis Burnett scored 12, Loncke had 10 and Royston Siland nine for Werk-en-Rust who have now placed themselves between a rock and a hard place, having now lost two games in the tournament with two more remaining.
Anyone could have seen the hunger to win in the eyes of the Charlestown unit, who effortlessly scored 18 points in overtime to chalk up an important win in Group ‘B’.
The win takes them to the top of the group with two more matches to play – first being tomorrow against a depleted East Bank side and the other against Central Mackenzie on April 24.
Charlestown, South Ruimveldt and Central Mackenzie have all recorded wins in Group ‘B’ which is called the ‘group of death’ and every other game henceforth is crucial to their survival since only the top two teams will advance to the knockout stage.
Meanwhile, Stephon Gillis and his East Coast were finally able to come up with a ‘W’ after losing two matches already in the competition.
Gillis had 13 points while his sidekick in the tournament, Quacy Newton, poured 20 points for East Coast. For the Berbicians, Sheldon Scotland scored 19, Theo Bess 12 and Randy Caesar 17.
The tournament will continue this evening with a triple-header that will see the Lindeners come to Georgetown again. In the opening fixture, Georgetown Inter-Ward champions North Ruimveldt are down to face a substandard New Amsterdam team.
Flashy centre Nkossi Gurrick will lead a strong Christianburg side against a determined Kitty/Campbellville in game two while Steve Neils Jr and Central Mackenzie are expected to easily walk over a feeble East Bank team who are yet to ‘show-up’.