Written by Joe Champan
KINGS retained the Linden Amateur Basketball Association’s (LABA) Trophy Stall Regulation Open Championship with a 66-60 win over Amelia’s Ward Jets last Sunday at the Mackenzie Sports Club hard court.National skipper Steve Neils (Jr) returned with his natural scoring touch while power forward Omally Sampson played his heart out in the paint to ensure the Kings retained their Trophy Stall Regulation title with an impressive display of all-round basketball to defeat Amelia’s Ward Jets.

Playing in what was a repeat of last year’s final when they also halted the Jets, Kings were led by the superb effort of Neils, who not only led their scoring with 21, inclusive of three from 3-point territory, but also had a game-high nine assists, while Omally Sampson, later named the Most Valuable Player-of-the-Final in a  race with Neils, shouldered them all the way with his strong inside moves. He posted 13 points and battled the Jets’ big men to grab 11 big rebounds in the process.
The final score did not reflect the frustration which stepped in for the Jets in the final stage with about two minutes of the game.
The experienced Kings’ former national Abdulla Hamid also played a key role in handling Shane Webster down low and another former national Marvin Hartman helped with his one-step flashing moves at times in tandem with Neils, causing the defence to break open, and this helped his team negate the powerful Webster duo of Shane and Allister.
In the end, the Jets backcourt players were unable to match the play of Neils, Rose and Hartman collectively and eventually this never allowed the Jets a chance to settle and take off.
The Kings were off to a fine start early and at halftime were cruising 23-17 as shooting guard Orin Rose got his team in a rhythm when he scored ten of those points in the first quarter, studded with three three-pointers
As the second half got under way, Kings’ Neils stepped up and nailed  back-to-back treys as he took control, scoring 10 points in this second quarter session. The Kings held sway 38-33 at halftime as they fought off the inside presence of the Jets’ big men Shane and Allister Webster.
The fact is that the Kings were getting their shots to drop and this posed tremendous problems for the Jets who were hoping to stall that aspect of the Kings and find their way inside.
However, Kings’ Sampson took on the role of taking it inside and in so doing he helped his perimeter players to get room and key open shots.
By the end of the third quarter the Kings were up 56-49 and Sampson, with some deft passes from Hamid, began to make his presence felt with some easy layups. This strategy thwarted the Websters’ game as they failed to effectively counter the outside shooting of the Kings despite the fine effort of their captain Kevin Joseph who was answering his opponents from 3-point territory to some extent.
Sampson began the fourth quarter well. He made his way inside and netted the first six points for the Kings. Neils then polished off the game netting in association with Abdulla Hamid as they made back-to-back free throws after being fouled down the stretch to seal the win for the Kings by a 66-60 score-line.
The Kings while being out-rebounded by the Jets 38-20 created problems for the small backcourt matchups, as Neils with 21 points and nine assists, Orin Rose 15 points and Marvin Hartman 12 points, seven rebounds and seven assists made light work of their backcourt counterparts. Their captain Kevin Joseph, while getting 18 points only got support from Rodwell Pellew who netted seven and five assists.
In the process the Kings forced the Jets to turnover the ball 16 times compared to their six while Sampson, in getting 13 points for the Kings, added six rebounds offensively and five defensively. Shane Webster hauled in eight rebounds with three blocked shots and six assists was named the Best Defensive Player-of-the-Final.
His brother Allister scored 16 points and collected six offensively and a similar amount of rebounds defensively in the game to go with two blocked shots.
In the supporting game the Half Mile Bulls won against the returning Bankers Trust Falcons 64-51.
It had no real significance because the third position was already taken by the Falcons who had lost their semifinal game to the Kings and should have played the loser of the other semifinal between the Jets and Retrieve Raiders who failed to take the court without the suspended Dwayne Roberts and lost that game by forfeiture.
The Organising Secretary of the LABA Ashton Angel (Jr), presented the winning Trophy Stall 2013 Championship Trophy and replicas to the winning Kings side including the Most Valuable Player trophy won by Omally Sampson of the Kings, while young assistant coach Reheim Neils collected the winning Trophy as the other trophies and medals were presented by Ms Yonette Walton and Chenelle Williamson.
Shane Webster was the Most Valuable Player-of-the-Final and Block 122 Flames were the Most Disciplined team.