By Daniel Haynes
BLOWOUTS seemed to be the continued theme of the Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) National Schools Basketball Festival (NSBF) as play continued on its second weekend.There were big wins for all of the teams. For Kwakwani and New Amsterdam Multilateral Secondary (NAMS) ,they registered their first wins in the tournament.
The first game of the night featured an U-16 matchup between Kwakwani and Tutorial High School, with Kwakwani dominating 53-13. Once again,Kwakwani’s up-tempo style of play coupled with lock down defence contributed to their win.
Also,balanced scoring saw Kwakwani with 10 of their 12 players scoring points, with leading scorers being David Conway, Isiah David and Kadeem Dover with 13, 9 and 7 respectively. On the Tuorial side, Zion Gray and Joel Spooner had 4 apiece.
Kick-starting the U-19 matchups was Mackenzie High taking on Berbice High;with Mackenzie coming out the winners 43-26.
National player Yannick Tappin led the Linden side with 12 points;with two 3-pointers and was assisted by Leon Benjamin. On the Berbice side, national U-16 guard Shamar France led the scoring in a losing effort with 13 points. France also added 5 rebounds and two steals to his stats.
The third game of the night saw New Amsterdam Multilateral Secondary downing St. Stanislaus College 48-26 in the U-19 matchup. Neil Wills scored 13 in the winning effort with a combination of post moves that seemed unstoppable.
Wills also had a power dunk in transition. He was supported by national guard Kelmar Carmichael, who had 9 points and 9 rebounds in the effort. Travis Belgrave was Saints’ primary offensive threat with 13 points.
St. Rose’s capped off the night,filled with blowouts,with a win over Queen’s College with the game finishing 39-16. Lance Martin led all scoring with 11 points, with Patrice Agrippa contributing 9 points in the win. For QC, it was Johnaton Browne and Damani Thomas who had 9 and 8 points respectively.
The games continue today with the Quarter finals for the U-16 category from 14:00hrs. The tournament is sponsored by Digicel, Banks DIH Limited and Beharry Group of Companies.