IT appears as if Guyana’s basketball scene will forever be haunted by teams failing to take the court,and referees terminating games.Both were true when THG Pacesetters took on Bounty Colts in the Turbo Hard-Court Basketball U-23 Championships at the Plaisance Community Court last Saturday.
The game was set up to be a tightly contested one since in their previous encounter, Pacesetters had won with a hail Mary shot as time expired.
The match was scheduled to have a starting time of 17:00 hrs,but did not begin until a little after 18:00 hrs ,because of some technical issues which had arisen from the fact that the Pacesetters coach had not arrived at the game.
One player assumed the role of player/coach and thus the game began. When the coach of Pacesetters,Clement Brusch did arrive, he demanded a restart of the game on the grounds that he was not informed of the game.
“The coach of the side was not present and the game should not have started without me” Brusch told the officials.
It was Pacesetters ball after a referee’s timeout which had sent both teams to the bench. When it was time to resume play, Colts took the court, while Pacesetters did not. This Publication understands that it was Brusch who allegedly told his team not to take the court.
It was at this point that Dexter Douglas, head referee for the game, blew the game off and awarded it to Colts on the grounds that “Pacesetters failed to take the court after the referee’s instruction.”
This incident followed the walk-off by Dynas Ravens when they faced Colts earlier this year in the Guyana Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) U-23 league final.
Additionally ,the first walk-off occurred in the ‘Road to Mecca’ Finals when Linden’s Retrieve Raiders walked off against Bounty Colts.