COULD teenage sensation Stanton Rose carry Colts to a National Championship or will the Raiders take the honours and the trophy back to Linden along with the $500 000 first place prize?

Many questions will be answered tonight as the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) bring the curtain down on its National Club Championship – the Road to Mecca III – tonight at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall from 19:00hrs.The third-place playoff will involve the former champs, as inaugural winners Ravens collide with last year’s title-holders Pacesetters.
But all eyes will be set on Rose, the 17-year-old point guard from Kwakwani, who has taken the Road Mecca III and made it his own.

Rose’s consistency in the backcourt led to Colts being one of the dangerous teams in the tournament. In fact, so deadly is the team’s entire backcourt that it counted for 65 points of the team’s total, as Rose, backed by Shelroy Thomas, Dave Causeway and Kurt English, wreaked havoc on the Ravens defence during their 81-59 semi-final win.
Head-to-head, Colts stand a better chance than their Linden counterparts. However, should Raiders’ go-getter and centrepiece Dwayne ‘Brown Sugar’ Roberts get going, the game could be difficult for the city team who were heavily dependent on their guards to lead them.

Keon Cameron, Retrieve Raiders’ point guard, is exciting to watch but could be just as horrible when he’s having an off-night.
While there is an inside presence for the Colts – Kurt Elias and Shane Webster – it’s the team’s point guards/backcourt who have been winning games.

But on the contrary, the Raiders’ backcourt, led by Cameron, veterans Abdullah Hamid and Marvin Hartman, could be outplayed by the much younger and faster Colts guards.
Meanwhile, the third-place game should be mouthwatering as it features two rivals – Pacesetters and Ravens – going into battle where the winners will pocket $150 000 and the losers have to settle for $100 000.
Raiders shocked Pacesetters in their semi-final, sending the tournament’s second-edition winners to a 65-55 defeat.
Knowing coach Clement Brusch and his troops, they will attempt to exact revenge on the Ravens, the team that took home the accolade in the tournament’s first year.
Several novelty events are also planned by the organisers in their effort to get fans involved.