Beverage Company,ANSA McAL Trading under their Stag brand of beers injected life into basketball in Berbice by sponsoring the Stag Beer Basketball Club Championship, which commenced Monday last at the Vryman’s Erven basketball court in New Amsterdam.
The Division One tournament, which was organized by the Berbice Amateur Basketball Association (BABA), tipped off with two games on Monday.
These games saw the Fyrish Fire Hawks scorching the Smythfield Rockerz 62-53 and the New Amsterdam Warriors taming the Rose Hall Panthers with the score 50-41 at the final whistle.
In game one, the Fire Hawks got the better of their opponents from jump-ball as they started well on offence and applied defensive pressure in the first quarter, causing constant turnovers and netting the conversion opportunities.
This resulted in the Fire Hawks racing 10 points ahead of the Rockerz at halftime, which saw the scores at 32-22.
The Fire Hawks managed to secure the victory through a good performance from Joel Fraser, who was on point from long range and rocked Rockerz’s net with four shots from downtown in his game high 19 points.
Fraser was supported by teammate Andy Mc Lean, who pitched in with 10 points.
For Smythfield Rockers, Jason Fraser and Clevilon Scipio piloted their team’s scoring 10 points each.
Game two saw New Amsterdam Warriors going on the back foot early as Rose Hall Panthers started aggressively and landed the first six points of the game.
Warriors restructured their offensive strategy after calling for a time out and this led to their inside man, Leroy Edwards stepping up his game and shouldering the attack on the Panthers.
However Panthers didn’t go down without a fight as Emon Wiggins combated Edwards on the inside and Adrian Mc Donald hit nothing but net when he aimed and fired four big shots from beyond the arc, which aided his team to take a 26-24 lead at halftime.
Fueled by some containing defence by Carlos Crandon and Leon Payne, Warriors took over in the second half and showed their dominance by taking the attack to their opposition to recapture and extend the lead.
Edwards wrapped up with a game high 14 points and Crandon contributed 12 for the Warriors, while McDonald and Wiggins led the scoring for the Warriors with 12 and 10 points respectively.
