THE Youth Basketball Guyana’s (YBG) 11th Annual National Schools Basketball Festival (NSBF) will tip into its final quarter today, with a series of Under-19 games from 17:00hrs at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall. Action in the tournament has been ongoing for two weeks and today’s quarterfinals mark the first of the last three days in the event.
The first game of the day will see defending champions Kwakwani Secondary match up against Mackenzie High. The Mackenzie side will be looking to deny the defending champs another run at the title.
However, it will not be an easy task since Kwakwani will be led by Road to Mecca 3 MVP Stanton Rose. For Mackenzie, shutting down Rose will only be a small part of the game plan with Kwakwani boasting two other Junior National players in Damair ‘Bubba’ Gladstone and Troy ‘Rambo’ David.
Following their match-up, President’s College will take on Linden Technical Institute (LTI). Both teams are coming into the game with dominating performances against their opponents in the opening rounds.
Jaleel Duke will be hoping to lead his East Coast side into the semifinals while Tahquille Johnson of LTI will be looking to spoil the party. LTI have a history of excelling in knockout stages, but with a fairly new cast, the Linden side will have pressure on their shoulders.
St Rose’s High will take on New Amsterdam Multilateral Secondary (NAMS) in the third game of the day. This will be an interesting matchup with both teams boasting high-calibre big men as well as guards.
New Amsterdam will have to find a way to cut off the head of Rose’s offence in duo guards Patrice Agrippa and Shamar Huntley. For NAMS, Ramone Fogenay and Kelmar Carmichael’s point guard combo will be crucial. The battle of the big ones will see NAMS’ Neil Marks, Tafawa Daly, Sherland Gillis take it to St Rose’s Akil Vaughn and Leon Ross. So far, Marks has seemed unstoppable with Daly spreading the floor to hit threes and Gillis’ scrappers approach to the game giving NAMS the edge.
Georgetown Technical Institute received a bye and will head straight to the semi-finals to await an opponent. Tomorrow will see all semifinals played with the final and closing ceremony on Sunday.
The tournament is sponsored by Digicel, Banks DIH Limited and Beharry Group of Companies.