DWAYNE ‘Brown Sugar’ Roberts turned in yet another monstrous performance, drilling a game-high 25 points and grabbing 12 rebounds as he propelled Charlestown/Albouystown to their second win over Central Mackenzie in the best-of-three finals of the Mackeson National Super-Ward Championships. After squeezing past the Linden side the previous night, Charlestown/Albouystown returned to thrash their opponent by 20 points (82-62) and in the process they claimed the tournament’s $500 000 first prize.
It was a bitter sweet night for Linden since Christianburg went on to lift the third place trophy by defeating North Ruimveldt 76-74 in the night’s curtain-raiser.
Again a mammoth crowd was on hand at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall to witness what many predicted would have been a close battle and the start of the game suggested that they would have gotten what they wanted.
Steve Neils Jr, who was kept quiet in game of the finals, returned with blood in his eyes and money on his mind and began to set the rim on fire with some on point shooting, scoring 22 points at the end.
With Neils being on fire and Roberts unstoppable in the paint, the tone for the night was set with the competitive nature of the first half being reflected on the score board that saw the two sides level on 17 at the close of the first quarter and Charlestown/Albouystown holding a slim lead (38-36) at the end of the half.
Two consecutive baseline jumpers by Roberts signalled a long night for Lawrence De Costa, Jason Alonzo, Neil Marks and Omolly Sampson; all of whom were tasked with marking the in-form centre.
Meanwhile Neils continued to be the one-man army for Central Mackenzie since game one fighter Marvin Hartman was not his usual self and failed to get into double digits, ending the game with eight points and six rebounds.
Alonzo got up on the boards and shot in nine points, grabbed 12 rebounds and had three blocked shots but that was as much scoring Central Mackenzie could have done since no one else was able to reach double digits.
The third period ended with the ‘Ghetto Boys’ still leading 57-50 and with the smell of some freshly minted $1 000 bills stacked up to half a million dollars in the air, Roberts and his boys stepped on the gas and it was no looking back.
They made it clear heading into the finals that ‘money’ was their motivation and their statement was exemplified in the fourth quarter as they out-scored Central Mackenzie 25-12.
Travis ‘Cook-up’ Foster (15), Rodwel ‘Kobe’ Fortune (12), Akeem ‘The Dream’ Kanhai (13) and Kevin ‘Two Feet’ Joseph (10) were the other players who did some serious damage to Central Mackenzie at both ends of the floor in a caustic manner.
It was not the type of performance the many Linden supporters who travelled the 65-mile route to the city came to see and their facial and sometimes verbal expressions told the story of their disappointment of the Central Mackenzie team’s performance, but at least they went home with something to smile about.
Christianburg, playing without their top centre Nkossi Gurrick, came from 18 points down in the first half to clinch a narrow but convincing win over North Ruimveldt.
The Linden ward, who were beaten by Charlestown/Albouystown in the semi-finals, trailed 9-19 to North Ruimveldt at the end of the first quarter and down 25-43 going into the second half.
Team work and backing of the entire Linden crowd in the stands, saw Christianburg, led by Dwight Cooper who had a monster night ‘downstairs’ scoring 21 points and Quincy ‘Prog-Z’ Jones (16), fight back against a stubborn and well oiled North Ruimveldt side.
Ryan Stephney netted 22 points; captain Darcel Harris scored 15 and Ryan Gullen 14 for North Ruimveldt. The Georgetown Inter-Ward Champs will now have to settle for the fourth place prize of $75 000 while Christianburg pocketed $150 000 and Central Mackenzie $250 000.
The presentation of prizes will be done on Saturday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.