IN 1984, playing for the YMCA Kings, Auric Tappin scored 58 points against the Mackenzie Knicks at the Mackenzie Sports Club (MSC) Hard Court.

Tappin’s 58 points was the most scored by a Guyanese player in a senior competition, but that was until September 11, 2017, when Harold Adams scored a jaw-dropping 111 points in the Victory Valley Royals’ 206-46 points win over Bankers Trust Falcons.
“I feel good becoming the first person to score that many points in a game, but I was just having fun,” Adams told Chronicle Sport yesterday.
For many, Auric Tappin is considered one of the purest scorers Guyana has ever produced, with the ‘back court’ player proving his worth for both club and country. Tappin’s record stood for 33 years – accomplished four years before Adams was born.
Many tried and could not erase the 58 points set by Tappin. Ravens point guard dropped 54 points against Eagles basketball club this year (2017), but that was as close as anyone got to pass Tappin’s mark.
In 1995, ‘Fat Wayne’ Andrews dropped 53 points on the Colts, while Steve Neils (Sr) in 1976 scored 51 points. Chris Williams, Adams’ teammate, had a 76-point performance, but that was during an Under-23 tournament in a game against the Kings.
While Adams was “having fun on the court” he could have cared less about mammoth points piled up by his team, where the 206 scored was the most by any team in Guyana at any level.

“The team playing good basketball and that’s all that matters to me right now. I honestly didn’t care about the points, but the guys told me to keep playing because I wanted to come off since the third quarter,” Adams said.

Prior to his historic 111-point performance, Adams had scored 46 points in his previous game and had a series of outstanding performances; but the small forward made it clear, “This is not about me, but right now, we’re trying to rebuild the team, so this was really a team thing.”

“The guys kept giving me the ball and encouraged me to keep playing,” said Adams, who added “right now, we have a good bunch of players, a nice young team and we’re good.”
Adams listed Orlon Glasgow, Marlon Pollydore, and Williams as the senior players on the Royals team, telling Chronicle Sport that “right now, we have a good group of youths and along with couple senior players, we’re taking things one game at the team.”
The team formed by former National coach and basketball enthusiast, Linden ‘Sancho’ Alphonso, made a name for themselves being a tough no-nonsense unit from Victory Valley and have always been one of Linden’s hardest teams to overcome.
The Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) ‘Road to Mecca’ National Club Championships – a tournament where the Royals, despite never winning, but found considerable amount of success – will be held in November and Adams believes that his team will make it all the way to the final.
According to Adams, the team is looking forward to the tournament, since “we have a good team, a good young team that I believe can compete and even go all the way. Right now we’re focused on playing good basketball and the Road to Mecca. We will be ready.”