-Marian, Plaisance Academy among winners

By Daniel Haynes

THE 11th annual Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) National Schools Basketball Festival (NSBF) started yesterday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall. The tournament was initially tipped for July but was postponed due to the Caribbean Basketball Championships (CBC) which Guyana hosted. However the postponement of the festival did not stop a successful tip off. The first game featured a female match up to jump start the day with the Girls from President’s College taking on the Girls from St. Rose’s High School where President’s College would come out the eventual winner 13-0. Demelza Nicholas came wast the top scorer for the game turning in 10 points with 3 rebounds and 8 steals.

In the second game of the day, Marian Academy came out winners over a fighting President’s College in the U14 category. The game finished 12-8 and despite being a low scoring affair, was tightly contested.
For Marian, Arwin Gainda finished with 4 points, Corey Graham had 2 points while Jaden Daziel and Jether Harris finished with 3 points apiece with Harris pulling down 8 rebounds to go with 4 steals. On the other side of the scoreboard, Richard Semple had 7 points and 3 steals in a losing effort.
In the third game of the day, newcomers North Georgetown took on St Joseph High School and won in a hard fought match. The Joseph side struggled to find any amount of consistency and despite spurts of scoring, they fell 28-24. It was the combo of Jamal Charmical and Jarrol Shepherd who were the leading scorers with 9 and 6 respectively. For Joseph’s both Shakeem Wilson and Denzil Ross finished with 7 points apiece to contribute to most of the scoring.
Plaisance Academy capped off the night with a dominating win over President’s College in the U16 match up 33-22. Led by CBC player Nigel Bowen who shot his way to 22 points to finish with a day high individual score. However, he also pulled down 20 rebounds on his way to finish with a double double. For President’s College Siplo McEvan finished with 5 points to top score in the losing effort.
According to YBG Director Chris Bowman, “We are happy to see the games tip off in such fine fashion and we look forward to seeing even better games within the next 8 days of the competition.
The games are played in a loser go home fashion and will see last night’s winners progressing to the next round. Action continues today at the same venue four games being played with tip off being 15:00hrs.