DYNA’S Ravens walked away with the winning spoils of the Guyana Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) Hard Court Tournament on Thursday night when both teams secured wins over TGH Pacesetters in the finals.In the U-23 final, Ravens edged Pacesetters with a 45-41 scoreline. Throughout the game, Ravens never relinquished the lead, leading in the first quarter 17-14 on the back of Nduku Horatio and Murtland Ward.

The second quarter saw Ravens put up 12 points to Pacesetters’ 6, to go into halftime 29-20. In the third period both teams struggled to score with Pacesetters cutting the lead to four points as they outscored Ravens 8-6 to finish the quarter trailing 35-28.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Pacesetters reduced a five-point Ravens, to reduce the score to 35-28. Pacesetters then pulled within two points of Ravens at 36-34, following a 6-1 run in the first four minutes of the period. Ravens responded, showing their grit and went on a scoring run to lead 43-34 with under three minutes remaining.
The game, was just as close as the scoreline indicated, with Pacesetters having the opportunity to win the encounter with 11 seconds to go. Guard Jaleel Duke had an opportunity to tie the game with two free throws.
At this point, Pacesetters were down 2 with the score 43-41 and 11 seconds remained. However, Duke missed both and on the second miss, Ravens forward Anfernee Jervis took it the length of the court and scored the layup to crush the hopes of Pacesetters.
For the winners, Nduku Horatio top-scored with nine points while Ward chipped in with eight. On the other side, Nathan Saul recorded a game-high 21 points.
Meanwhile, on the Senior side the win margin for Ravens mirrored that of the U-23, with Pacesetters falling 63-57. High scoring at a frenzied pace was the story of the game, with both teams scoring double figures in each quarter.
The first quarter saw Ravens jump out to a two-point lead behind its prolific scorer Ryan Stephney’s shooting. The quarter finished 16-14 with Pacesetters’ Stephan Gillis keeping his team close.
The second quarter saw a reverse of the score with Ravens scoring 14 and Pacesetters scoring 16 to finish the half at 30-30.
However, Ravens would not be denied and once again Ryan Stephney put in work, assisted by teammate Dominic Vincente, to register the highest quarter-total of the game – 19. Pacesetters turned in 7 less with 12 and the quarter ended 49-42 with 10 minutes to play.
Pacesetters fought back into the game in the fourth but Ravens never relinquished the lead, despite being outscored by 1 point in the quarter. Stephney and Vincente saw Ravens home, both finishing with 23 and 11 respectively.
Stephan Gillis registered a team-high 15 points in the losing effort. With the win, Ravens won two out of three legs in the tournament.