Kwakwani win U-19, U-14 and Girls championship
… St Rose’s claim U-16 title

KWAKWANI, located on the Berbice River in Region 10, dominated the just concluded Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG)-organised National Schools Basketball Festival (NSBF), held over the past two weeks in Georgetown.
Kwakwani won the Girls’ championship, along with the Under-14 and Under-19 titles but lost to St Rose’s Secondary in the Boys’ Under-16 final. It was a fitting result for one of the most successful teams at the championship and the community who showed their all-round dominance.
It was really a case of a ‘no contest’ in the Under-19 final with Kwakwani Secondary behind Leonard Primo’s monster night on the court, as they defeated Plaisance Academy 73-59.
Primo totalled 29 points and grabbed 18 rebounds and was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP), a fitting reward for the power forward, who has been consistent throughout the Digicel-sponsored tournament.
Nathan Saul saved his best performance for last, to help St Rose’s prevent a Kwakwani clean-sweep, as he scored a game-high 39 points to lead his school to an 85-64 points victory.
Saul also had seven rebounds and six steals to top Kwakwani’s Domair Gladstone’s 32 points and 19 rebounds.
The Under-14 Championship saw Kwakwani narrowly edge Marian Academy 30-29, led by an MVP-winning performance from Keith Adams with 10 points, coupled with 13 rebounds and three steals.
For Marian Academy, the category’s best defensive player awardee Joshua Brazoa, had 11 points, 12 rebounds and nine steals and Jaleel Young six points and 22 rebounds
Kwakwani won the Girls’ title with an effortless showing over St Stanislaus and St Rose’s by a combined 70 points and zero.
The tournament MVP was Jenelle Belle. She averaged 10 points, four rebounds and three steals while the leading scorer Makeida Rogers averaged 12 points, six rebounds.
Belle and Rogers are both members of Guyana’s Inter-Guiana Games (IGG) winning team.
St Rose’s Courtney Taylor was named the NSBF best coach and received the prize, compliments of Edward B. Beharry and Company Ltd, and Digicel best uniformed team award went to Bishops’ High.
Timothy Thompson (Bishops’), Edmare Semple (NATI), Jamal Gilkes (KK), Jaleel Young (Marian Academy), Kemmol Benjamin (KK) were the Banks DIH stand-out players awardees.
Sportsmanship Individual award was won by Patrice Agrippa (St Rose’s), Sportsmanship Team went to Marian Academy and the Senior Class Award – Jonathan Pooran (UG).