Linden pursuing rare double, as they face Georgetown, Berbice tonight

PERHAPS history will be created when the Berbice Under-19 boys’ and men’s teams and the Georgetown female team journey to face their Linden counterparts in a triple-header card set for this evening in the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation’s Inter-Association Basketball Championship. The historic clash at the Mackenzie Sports Club Hard Court will also bring the curtain down the championship.
It is the first time in recent memory that such a card has been arranged and the question is: “Can the visitors secure wins in the backyard of their hosts, who are set to be crowned male and female inter-association champions in front of a partisan home crowd”?
In fact, the home sides are highly favoured to win all three matches, barring upsets and the inclement weather, leaving one to wonder perhaps the margin of wins.
Linden will be squaring off at 18:30hrs against the Berbice Under-19 boys. This will be the game of unknown quantities since neither side have played competitively and this game is being used as a yardstick to select players for trials for the Inter-Guiana Games, set for Suriname in July.
The second game at 20:00hrs should be of interest since the Linden women are looking to dominate their Georgetown counterparts after winning the first game at this very venue 59-44.
Linden will be led by Nichola Jacobs while Georgetown will be spearheaded by Natasha Alder.
The third game is between the Linden and Berbice male teams and this is one game that Linden should win and crown themselves GABF Inter-Association champions for 2014, having won against Georgetown 58-50 and lost 70-71 in the return leg, while Georgetown blasted the challenge of Berbice 116-42 when they met.
Linden are set to pin their hopes on players like Shane Webster, Dwayne ‘Brown Sugar’ Roberts, Keon Cameron and Chris Williams to see them through.
Berbice, on the other hand, are expected to field a team inclusive of players of the calibre of Randy Richardson, Carlos Crandon and Keron Emmanuel.
The federation is hoping that these clashes will present the basketball selectors with the best opportunity to select the top players, who should be called to trials for play in the Caribbean Basketball Championships for Men and Women in the British Virgin Islands in July.

(By Joe Chapman)