Mackeson National Super Ward C/ships …
WORTMANVILLE/Werk-en-Rust and New Amsterdam (NA) grabbed the last bit of glory that was to be had by the four teams that were in competition during Thursday night’s final round of games for the preliminary round of the Mackeson National Super Ward Basketball Championships. The first match-up of the night was a nail-biter between New Amsterdam and Kitty/Campbellville which came down to a desperate hustle in the end.
The game started off in Kitty/C/ville’s favour as they took an early 14-point lead in the first quarter, 13-27, which was reversed by halftime as they were limited to a measly two points by the opposition’s defence.
New Amsterdam experienced an equal surge offensively as they went on a 24-point rampage in the second quarter and beefed up their score to 37 to Kitty/C/ville’s 29 by the end of the first half.
Kitty/C/ville came out with renewed zest in the third quarter but were unable to take the lead even though they outscored their opponents, managing to accumulate 21 points to the opposition’s 17, and closed the gap between the two to a four-point lead of 54-50.
The last quarter saw a continuation of this trend with New Amsterdam keeping the lead just out of the reach of the Kitty/C/ville side even down to the final minutes when the latter made their final stand with a desperate but futile fight to the finish as New Amsterdam still managed to come out on top with the final score reading 75-71 in their favour.
Randy Richardson top-scored for the winners with 15 points while Randy Caesar turned in 14 points and Shem Bess and Carlos Crandon scored 11 and 10 points respectively. Shane Webster and Devon Bacchus were an impressive pair for the Kitty/C/ville side as they both tied for the game-high score of 20 points.
Apparently unable to recover from the crushing defeat that they suffered at the hands of Central Mackenzie on Tuesday, South Ruimveldt were once again unable to claim victory as they lost to Wortmanville/Werk-en-Rust by a nine-point deficit.
Wortmanville went on the attack from the first whistle, managing to gain an eight-point lead (8-16) by the end of the first quarter while their counterparts from the other side of the court were a bit slow in getting heated. South Ruimveldt, however, picked up the pace in the second quarter and closed the gap to a slim one-point lead of 25-26, in Wortmanville’s favour, by the end of the quarter.
They finally managed to take control of the scoreboard as the tables turned in their favour during the third quarter of the game with the laggards Wortmanville trailing by three points as the scores read 38-35.
But in the end it was Wortmanville who were able to tab on the scoreboards until game time expired with a final score of 51-60 which was mostly due to the efforts of Triston Lake, who managed to score a game-high 14 points, Royston Siland who racked up 12 points and 11 rebounds and Kurt Elias who matched that score.
Clement Brusche also managed to score double digits, 11 points, and retrieved 9 rebounds. The statistics from the South Ruimveldt end of the table saw Yannick Wade, Fabian Johnson and Gavin Bearam each score 10 points.