Kings and Berbice All-Stars recorded walkover victories Friday night to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2007 Next Level Entertainment (NLE) nationwide first division tournament at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Berbice was scheduled to play last year’s runners-up, Ravens in the first game, while Kings was down to play an East Bank combined team in the feature encounter on the opening night of the tournament.
Ravens forfeited their game owing to what the team called an “unfair” debarring of national centre, Dwayne ‘Sugar’ Roberts from the tournament.
The Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GA-BF) had issued a release last week asking NLE not to allow Roberts to play in the tournament until the federation had investigated his situation.
The top player was issued a two-year ban by the Linden sub- association for a fight that erupted on the McKenzie court in Linden during an invitational game between Linden’s Kings and Georgetown’s Ravens.
Coach of the Ravens, Lugard Mohan told Stabroek Sport Friday night that the team had not received any formal letter stating any position by the association or the federation on Roberts’s ban.
“The federation is the governing body of all associations, they sent Ravens no letter stating that Roberts can’t play,” Mohan said, adding that Roberts was allowed to play in the recently concluded Georgetown first division league tournament.
According to Mohan, Ravens could have won the tournament without Roberts but the team decided to support the player.
“Ravens decided to stand beside one of its players, we don’t have to play ‘Sugar’ to win the tournament but the team fully supports the decision; it’s not my decision but Ravens’ decision,” Mohan explained.
Two players from the Kings unit were involved in the matter in Linden but they received much lighter punishment than Roberts and were present for the team’s game Friday night.
East Bank combined did not turn up for their game against defending champions, Kings in the feature game. Both Kings and Berbice became the first two teams through to the next round.
Kings will play the winner of a Bulls vs. Pistons game while Berbice All-Stars awaits the winner of a Retrieve Raiders vs Scorpions game played last night at the McKenzie hard court in Linden.
Georgetown’s hope of taking the title out of the mining town now rests on number one seed in the Garden City, Courts Pacesetters with the untimely exit of Ravens from the tournament.
