Jets, Unknowns and Assassins also through to the Round-of-16
THE Victory Valley Royals quartet of Chris Williams, Orlan Glasgow, Harold Adams and Marlon Pollydore once again have shown their appetite for winning and more so claiming the $1M first prize of the Mackeson Smooth Moves 3 on 3 Basketball tournament when they topped the Linden Zone of the countrywide competition. Royals will be joined by Jets, Unknowns and Assassins to represent Linden in the Round-of-16, set for Saturday, November 5, at the Mackeson Sports Club Hard Court.
Six of the top teams from the three groups played in Linden were on show Tuesday last but only four could have moved on. Ghetto and Team Titan were the two teams to be eliminated.
Assassins were the only team to defeat the Royals, winning 8-7 but the team from the west side of the Demerara River, who had opened their night with a 14-6 win over Ghetto, would go on to defeat Team Titan 17-10, Unknowns 10-9 and Jets on sudden-death shootout.
Prior to their defeat to Victory Valley Royals, the Jets stopped Assassins 15–9 in the first game of the night, 8–3 over Team Titan, Unknowns 14–7 and Ghetto 15–11.
Ghetto had later forfeited their last game of the night which was supposed to be against Assassin setting up what would have been the most exciting game of the evening between Jets and Victory Valley Royals for the Zone winners’ first prize of $40 000.
Referee Sherwin Henry had his work cut out for him from the flip of the coin to initiate possession of the ball, since the game was very physical and up-tempo.
Williams and Pollydore were matched with Kevin Joseph and Leonard Caleb and Glasgow had to deal with the power of Shane Webster.
The spectators were very much into the game as both teams’ supporters were very vocal throughout the contest.
When the dust settled, the scores were leveled at 11, heading into free-throw shootout to determine the winner and thanks to a missed basket by Lawrence De Costa, Jets had to settle for $10 000 while Royals celebrated not only winning the zone but going home $40 000 richer.
Competition continued last evening at the Independence Boulevard Hard Court in Albouystown.