ONCE again home court was a disadvantage as Linden failed to close out the friendly series in game two against their Georgetown rivals.
The script was the same as game one, as a nervous Georgetown fell behind Linden 15-9 and there was obvious panic in the camp when high flying ambitious Ashford Johnson did not “obey his thirst” and stuck the basketball on the front iron of the rim in a failed attempt at dunking a fast break pass.
With quick thinking and positive basketball Intelligence Quotient (IQ), Georgetown’s head coach Courtney Hinds called a timeout to weather the storm.
With the Linden fans calling for a blow-out and chants of “Sweep GT”, Georgetown’s Ashford Johnson regained his pride and injected some much-needed offence to slow Linden down. Georgetown closed the first half on a 10-2 run to lead 38-33.
Coach Hinds made it very clear that he wanted to tie the series as he inserted sharpshooter and potential Guyana national player Marlon Thornton and Ronald Alkins into the starting lineup to begin the second half.
With Alkins’ composure to settle the game and Thornton’s trigger fingers, Georgetown lit up the scoreboard to 59-40 with 11:19 left in the second half.
History was about to repeat itself as captain Travis Williams forced multiple turnovers in failed attempts to add insult to injury with trick passes off the backboard, between the legs and no-look passes.
Linden took advantage of Georgetown’s mistakes as they staged a dramatic 15-0 run. Three of the 15 points were attributed to technical fouls dished out by senior referee Bernard Daniels against Georgetown as he stamped his authority on controlling the game.
Dwaine ‘Jibba’ Jones, who did not play in game two as he tried to stay out of the media’s limelight, was given a bench technical foul for verbal abuse and toothpick throwing antics towards senior referee Daniels. Marlon Thornton and Ashford Johnson picked up technical fouls for their disgruntled outburst.
Coach Hinds once again sensed Linden’s urgency and used his last timeout with 1:47 left in the game to settle his players. Georgetown went on to defeat Linden 69-62 and force a game 3.
Ashford Johnson led Georgetown with 20 points, while rising stars Marlon Thornton had 14 points and 5 rebounds and Wilfred Branche had 10 points, 18 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
In the losing effort Rockliff Joseph had a game-high 22 points and 10 rebounds, while Laurel Bobb and Oldey Alleyne had 10 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocked shots each.
Wilfred Branche was declared game two’s most valuable player (MVP).
The officials of the game were Bernard Daniels and Paul Haynes. Score-keeper and statistician was Patrick Haynes. Photographer was Linden Alphonso.