–    Ravens and Maccabees
–     advance on opening night
RAVENS overcame a spirited fight from New Amsterdam Warriors, while Maccabees trashed a hapless looking Wismar Pistons when the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) Digicel/Mackeson sponsored National Club Championships bounced off on Saturday.

Playing in the opening game of the double-header, Ravens showed why they are the top club in the city by downing New Amsterdam 81-66 in a game played in high intensity.

Fans turned up to the premier indoor facility to witness a lopsided affair, but the men from the Ancient county commanded their respect with their “rough house” style and smooth flow basketball against the star studded Georgetown team but in the end, experience and talent was not on their side.

Ravens acquired a new weapon to their artillery in National youth player Akeem ‘The Dream’ Kanhai and the 19 year-old didn’t fail to make his presence felt scoring 16 points.

Sheldon Thomas, Randy Richards and Randy Ceasar carried the load for Berbice from jump ball and held on to Ravens for much of the quarter.

They (Berbice) showed a little nervousness, making simple turnovers which saw the city team capitalizing and ending the first quarter leading 21-10.

However, Berbice shock off their rustiness and took the game to Ravens who made a series of unforced errors, and simply looked very sloppy as compared to a tidier New Amsterdam bunch.

But thanks to the steady plays by Kanhai, and forwards Dwayne ‘Brown Sugar’ Roberts and Ryan Gullen in the second quarter, Ravens clawed their way back into the game and led 44-35 at half time.

The third period belonged to the Berbice team, since only Roberts and Kanhai could’ve seen the basketball thanks to their individual skills which were spot on Saturday, but for the others, Berbice smothering Defence was a bit too much.

Thomas and Richards really did some damage in the third quarter for New Amsterdam Warriors at both ends of the floor that saw the Berbice side outscoring Ravens 24-15 and they entered the fourth quarter with the scores levelled at 59.

But things got different in the last period.

Ravens turned up the pressure on the visitors, with guard Ryan Stephaney scoring all seven of his points in the fourth, along with Devon Bacchus (8) and Gullen (12).

Kanhai handled most of the ball and played well in getting his team mates involved after drawing a double team for most of the night.

He was able to get around his defenders to form a lethal two man game with Roberts who also was well in for a double-double, garbling a series of rebounds and was really unstoppable in the paint.

Roberts, who ended the game with a team high 19 points and Kanhai were the top scorers for the victors, who showed that they can play defense just as they score; only allowing New Amsterdam to score seven fourth quarter points.

Thomas came up huge for his side, scoring a game high 22 points, with Richards and Ceasar scoring 11 a piece and Theophalous Bess 10.

The tournament continued last night with another double-header.