LTI face Mackenzie High in today’s final

By Joe Chapman

LINDEN Technical Institute (LTI) are the favourites against Mackenzie High School (MHS) in today’s Linden Amateur Basketball Association/Youth Basketball Guyana/Powerade Linden Schools Under-19 championship final.

Set for the Mackenzie Sports Club hard court, LTI have played unbeaten in the tournament, including against their final opponents MHS.
MHS booked their place by first defeating New Silvercity Secondary (NSS) 107-31, with Leon Benjamin (28) leading the charge. Yannick Tappin and Shemar Henry each netted 20 points and Kareem Roberts chipped in with 19 points.

Kobe Tappin was again the best player for NSS with 13 points.
In the other semi-final match on Wednesday top-ranked LTI brushed aside Wisburg Secondary 82-51. Five players were in double figures – Jamal Gilkes with 22 points, Raynaldo Patoir 18, Stephon Duncan 12, Daniel Lee had 12 and Shamar Chapman added 10.

Jonathan Copeland was again the top shoot for Wisburg Secondary with 23 points as Odlyn Baird and Keyon Davidson each scored eight points in the loss.
Today’s final will see LTI stake their unblemished record against MHS, whom they defeated in the preliminary round 67-51. There were some doubts in the first game as to how MHS had managed their players but LTI will want to dispel any doubt that they are the best team in the tournament.

LTI were led by the brilliance of Jamal Gilkes who has netted 140 points at an average of 28 per game, despite sitting out the team’s final preliminary game.
He is joined by Daniel Lee who also has 103 for an average of 17 points per game and Raynaldo Patoir also among the points with 85 for an average of 14 points.
Others to look at are Stephon Duncan and Shamar Chapman who have been adding to the team’s success in their recent matches.

The MHS, however, should be able to compete at this level as their only loss was against the LTI side.
Leon Benjamin has been their mainstay with 110 points for an average of 22 per game while Yannick Tappin remains among the best players in this stage having scored 87 points for an average of 17 per game.

Kareem Roberts who has been a bit inconsistent must come good if they are to stop LTI.. Roberts has scored 55 points so far and is averaging 11 per game.

This final will be preceded by the third-place game between Wisburg Secondary and NSS.
Several individual prizes are also on offer including the Most Valuable Player-of-the-Final and MVP-of-the-Tournament.
The first game is at 16:00hrs and the final is at 18:00hrs.