Scorpions, Pacesetters advance to semi-finals
BEEPAT Scorpions and Courts Pacesetters rounded off an all-Georgetown Semi-finals/Finals showdown in the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) Digicel/Mackeson-sponsored National Club Championships, after both sides thrashed their Linden counterparts on Sunday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Playing in front of a small but appreciative crowd, Pacesetters romped to an unimpressive 88-54 win over Retrieve Raiders while Scorpions fought off Victory Valley Royals 80-68.
The state of basketball in Linden was truly displayed in the tournament and the substandard level of play shown by the Linden teams is a crying shame.
In the feature game, Raiders only managed to score five points which they did through Louis James.
The first quarter finished 31–5 in a period laced with more turnovers than the New York Stock exchange and folly was just at the beginning.
As poorly as they played Raiders were able to restrain Pacesetters to only eight points in the second quarter with mostly James and Neil Marks carrying the attack along with collective team effort, scoring 19 points of their own, which was also the best they played in the entire game.
At halftime, the scoreboards read 39-24 and the venue was almost empty since patrons walked out after the poor display in the game.
In the third quarter, the COURTS-sponsored team showed some signs of why they were once this country’s top playing club but as far as being championship quality were a far cry, entering the fourth quarter leading by 20 points (60-40).
Unlike James for Raiders, there was no one man outstanding for Pacesetters and the final score didn’t do any justice in telling how bad the game was. Nonetheless, a win is a win they say in sports as they (Pacesetters) now move into the semi-finals to face the Beepat Scorpions.
James finished the game with a hard-fought game-high 24 points while Travis Burnett (22) and Stefon Gillis (15) were the top scorers for Pacesetters.
Meanwhile Scorpions and Victory Valley Royals offered much more as it relates to quality as the two sides really came out fighting hard, but the Linden side showed a great amount of rust in their game.
Their 12-point defeat could be justified as the team, seeded number one in Linden, showed that with a little more competition in the mining town, they can return to prove their worth at the top.
Marvis Hillman poured in a crafty game-high 25 points while former national junior captain in point guard Shelroy Thomas who was a thorn in Royals’ defence scored 21 and captain Trevor McLeod added nine.
For the Linden unit, Mark Richard netted 15, Chris Williams 13 and Orlando Glasgow seven.
The tournament continues on Saturday with Maccabees facing off against Ravens and Scorpions opposing Pacesetters in the semi-finals.