Ravens Basketball Club seems to be in a no-nonsense mood this year after they annihilated Bounty Colts 73 – 59 in their first match in the GABA Open League while Courts Pacesetters clipped Maccabees 57 – 45 in the lone third division match-up.
Colts came out looking to prove that Ravens were beatable but the Ravens never let them fly too far ahead.
Some collective basketball by the Ravens saw them levelling the score at 14 at the end of the first period.
Coach/player Sariah Clarke kept his team in check and made a few key substitutions which saw point guards Rodwell ‘Kobe’ Fortune and Stephon ‘Penny’ Henry shutting out the Colts back court while inside, the combination of Dwayne ‘Brown Sugar’ Roberts and Ryan ‘Kobron’ Gullen took care of the class.
Their run, coupled by good shooting and hustle by Gullen, Roberts and Kevin Lawrence, saw the Ravens out scoring the Colts 25 – 8 and ending the first half 39 – 22.
However, Colts came on strong in the third quarter with veteran centre Dane Kendall leading from the front.
Kendall’s splurge in the paint saw his teammates responding at both ends of the floor to score 24 points in the quarter which was just six more than Ravens.
Still, heading into the closing quarter of the game, the Colts trailed 46 – 57.
Again showing their merit as being one of the city’s top basketball clubs, Ravens put on an offensive fire and a defensive shutdown and romped to their first win in the tournament.
Lawrence led all scorers with 21 points, Gullen had 13, Fortune 12 and Roberts 11. Kendall’s well-played 13 points was the highest individual score for the Colts while Desmond Chin finished with 10.
In the third division game Courts Pacesetters showed that they meant business in a bid to regain their status as the division’s top club after going down to Ravens last year.
After being up by one point (24-25) at the end of the first half, national junior point guard Richard Mohandatt stepped up and took his team to victory.
The Berbician finished the game with 14 points while dishing out several key assists, most of which found the sure hands of another junior national Drexel Amsterdam who netted 10 points.
Junior national center, Prince Giddings was kept silent all night and only scored eight points for Maccabees.
The league will continue this evening with a triple header starting from 18:00 hours with a third division game between the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and Beepat Scorpions starting off the night.
Colours Panthers will face Eagles in the first of two open matches with Pepsi Sonics and Courts Pacesetters being the night’s feature attraction.
