Marian Academy beat Saints to win first-ever Georgetown Conference Title
MARIAN Academy bounced back  from being 19 points down in the second half to defeat St Stanislaus College (Saints) 70-59 on Sunday evening at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and lift the Georgetown Conference title of the Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) National Schools Basketball Festival (NSBF).
Powerhouse Saints came into the contest as favourites to win with their leading player Neil Gordon looking set to guide his team to the title, but Marian Academy kept playing ‘team basketball’ and seldom depended on their frontier player Tequain Vieira.
At halftime, things were all in Gordon and his team’s favour as he rallied them to a 34– 29 score which they did by going on a 17–4 run to steal momentum from Marian who were scoring at will going into the interval.
Gordon who netted a game-high 28 points, continued to carry Saints on their remarkable run in the second half as they piled on the lead, going on a 16–2 run leading by as many as 19 points (50–31).
But Vieira and his Marian troops were able to rally back and it was National squash champion Jason Ray Khalil’s three-pointer with just under three minutes remaining in the game that give his side the lead (59–55) after they had clawed their way back into the contest.
The eventual losers tried everything they could, but Marian’s captain and ‘go-to- guy’ Vieira hit a three-pointer during the final seconds of the game to put the final nail in the coffin and to hand his school the well-deserved win.
Vieira led his team with 18 points, 12 of which he scored in the second half including two three-pointers during the last minute and guard Ruel Ritch scored 15 points (ten in the first half) to go along with three assists, three rounds and three steals.
Gordon scored only eight points in the second half and Saints experienced a massive scoring drought for the last 12 minutes of the game.
Lorenzo Bethune scored eight points and pulled down 14 rebounds, while Kevin Higgins added 13 points.
In the supporting game Plaisance defeated School of the Nations 70-45 with Nikkoloi Smith scoring 28 points with eight rebounds and six steals, while Nicholas Cassius had 15 points three assists, six rebounds and four steals.
Dino Choo-Wee-Naam top-scored for Nations with 22 points and six rebounds.