General Secretary of the Guyana Basketball Foundation and President of the Central American and Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CONCENCABA) Patrick Haynes says this the successful hosting of the English-speaking Caribbean’s first 3×3 quest tournament will be use to jump start the growth of the sport in the region.

“Part of this initiative, [was] we also had a referee’s clinic, so it is now to amplify the 3×3 programs within the Caribbean region within South America, Central America. North America has a pretty strong presence but it’s about how do we grow from here, we have already an interest from the Cayman Islands and Dominican Republic of hosting a series of 3×3 quest. This is the beginning of more competition within this space and this is going to ultimately Improve the quality of basketball within the region.”

Haynes who is a longtime regional basketball administrator says the realization of the event was made possible through the support of the Government of Guyana.
“I was able to use my influence with FIBA headquarters, in terms of promoting 3×3 basketball within the Caribbean region, one of the things they are looking for is more competitions and the growth of 3×3 basketball, so approaching both the Government of Guyana though the ministry of Culture Youth and Sport, was an easy sell and by getting them on board, it was easy for me to present this to FIBA headquarters to get this approved and executed.”
He said the GBF is working behind the scenes to make sure it has the desired effects in months to come of the competition.

“One of the things I’m talking to a number of academies within Europe, in Serbia 3×3 academy and the Spain 3×3 academy, is building basketball, not only 3×3 basketball, basketball on a whole from the grass roots level. We are talking about four to five all the way to the ages to make sure that the fundamentals are there, the accessibility to the game is there, this is a stepping stone that we can use to now influence the youth and bring them into the game.”
The two-day competition which tipped off on Saturday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall saw Top Puerto Rican 3×3 sides Carolina overcoming a Dominican Republic outfit 21-15 after playing unbeaten in the earlier rounds.
Guyana’s teams Georgetown and the Renegades played well but didn’t advance finals.

Georgetown edged Guatemala side PSN 13-8 in their opening game and narrowly lost a thriller to Team Paramaribo 18-17.
Meanwhile, the Renegades, representing Guyana in Pool B, bounced back from an early loss to defeat Elite Blazers 15-12 and Quarters United 18-16.

Renegades would reach the quarter final before losing 21-14 to Trinidad side Maloney Pacers who were edged by the eventual champions Carolina in the semis.
The champions Carolina collected 1 million Guyana dollars for the win plus four tickets to Canada for the FIBA 3×3 World Tour which they also qualified for by winning the tournament.
Second place collected four hundred thousand dollars with half that amount for third place.