–    Victory Valley Royals dominate;
–     Ghetto squeezes into second round
THE Victory Valley Royals and ‘Ghetto’ are the first two teams to advance to the next round when the lucrative Mackeson Smooth Moves 3-on-3 basketball tournament bounced off on Sunday evening at the Mackenzie Sports Club Hard Court in Linden.

Placed in Group ‘A’ of the competition, the two teams saw off challenges from Kings Way, Constabulary and Team Smooth, in an exciting evening of basketball, that was more than welcoming to the scores of people who turned up at the newly refurbished facility to usher back basketball into the community.

Despite the late afternoon showers, the players and basketball hungry fans, came out in full support and in spite of the late start to the day’s proceedings Troy Cadogan, Marketing Director of Ansa McAl, the exclusive sponsors of the nationwide tournament, expressed his delight and that of his company for hosting the tournament.

“When we came up with this idea to have this competition and wanted a place to launch it off, Linden was the first place that came to mind because this place has been without basketball for close to a year because of not having a facility and I know that the players would’ve been enthusiastic about playing,” Cadogan said.

The Marketing Director was first on hand to witness the players literally giving their all and battled like true gladiators as many hearts were broken.

Led by the sharp shooting Chris Williams, team Victory Valley Royals, chalked up three out of four wins, only losing to Constabulary.

The first game of the night pitted the Royals clashing with ‘Ghetto’ and that game set the tone for the rest of the evening. The players adapted well to the rules of 3-on-3 format and displayed good basketball during their 15 minutes on court.

Williams was the star of the evening as he gracefully stroked in his ‘Mackeson Smooth’ jumpers from all around the court while point guard Anson Durant, forward Dwight Cooper and Kurliegh Austin couldn’t have kept up with his antics as they (Ghetto) were easily beaten.

Kings Way who on paper was the team to beat in the tournament, lost their opening match -up via sudden death free-throws after they were deadlocked with Constabulary on 13 points apiece at the end of 15 minutes.

National players Marvin Hartman, Jason Alonzo, Omally Sampson and 2011 CBC team representative Neil Marks were the four Kings men who formed their alliance and became an instant crowd favourite to go all the way.

Team Smooth, piloted by Trevor Profit and Alwyn Rodney along with Dellon George, lost their first game to Victory Valley Royals and would go on to lose their other two games, only winning one, but were thrown way out of the equation.

At the end of the playing night, Williams had put on an awe-inspiring shooting display along with his team mates – IGG Point guard Marlon Pollydore, Orlando Glasgow – as Victory Valley Royals finished atop the group, leaving the spectators to witness the first ‘shoot-out’ to see who the other team would be to join the Royals in the next round.

With the exception of ‘Team Smooth’ (one win, three loses) all the other teams had two wins, two loses each and the organisers had the two best shooters from each team head into a shoot-out.

Constabulary was the first team to be eliminated, leaving Kingsway and ‘Ghetto’ to battle it out.

Neil Marks and Omally Sampson were the two Kings shooters while for Ghetto, Anson Durant and Kurliegh Austin had the honours.

When the dust settled, Durant was at the line to hit the winning shot after Sampson had a chance of closing things out before him, and with the crowd behind him (Durant) and a million dollars in sight, the point guard calmly stroked it home as his team survive to head into the next round.

Action in the Linden leg will continue on Wednesday October 12 when Group B will begin play. So far, the team to look out for is ‘Jets’, hailing from the Amelia’s Ward area, that has the likes of Kevin ‘2feet’ Joseph, power forward and CBC representative Shane Webster, Lawrence De Coasta and Laurel Caleb.

Meanwhile, action in the Georgetown zone will bounce off Saturday at the Burnham Basketball Court while Berbice is set to begin on Sunday.