Last Sunday the Burnham Basketball Court came alive with teams from the East Bank of Demerara as the 14th Annual Basketball Championship got underway. The Championship was coordinated by Wayne Francois, from the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport/National Sport Commission and the two referees for the competition were Dennis Clarke and Vijay Panday.

The first two teams to take the court were Mocha/Arcadia and Supply /Soesdyke. Supply /Soesdyke suffered a blowout as Mocha/Arcadia was too much to handle.

At half time scores were 19 for Mocha and 8 for Soesdyke. The second half was where hope of any sort was banked out as 31 points were registered for Mocha as compared Supply/Soesdyke’s nine points.

Supply/Soesdyke suffered a 50 – 17 defeat with Trevor Davis scoring ten points for the winning team while no other player from Soesdyke got into double figures.

Herstelling overcame Barama in a close encounter which ended 37 – 35. The half time score was 19 – 26 for Barama. In the end, Herstelling made a comeback with Orel Webster leading the way with 11 points while again no other player from the opposition got into double figures.

Kwesi Roberts and Marlon Mekles led the way with 24 and ten points respectively for Bagostown as they defeated their rival. In a close game, at half time when scores were tied 19 – 19, the second half was more of Bagostown’s time to shine as they outscored McDoom to win their encounter 50 – 40.

In the final game, Prospect secured a victory over Land of Canaan in another close encounter. Prospect had a 15-point lead going into the final half as the scores at half time were 31 – 16.

Mark Richards (13 points), Quincy Boodhoo (12 points) and Drexel Aaron (10 points) helped to keep off the comeback which Royston Rose was a part of, scoring 24 points for the losing team; they were still not able to secure a victory and the game ended 50 – 47.