Nets Basketball Club reached their first nationwide first division semi-final Sunday night at the McKenzie basketball court when the Next Level Entertainment (NLE) tournament continued in the mining town with a double-header.
Centre Fabian Johnson poured in 21 points and pulled down 15 rebounds for a double/double to ensure that Nets went away with a 63-53 win over Linden’s Victory Valley Royals.
Johnson with his second individual score over 20 points in two games is the leading candidate for the tournament’s leading scorer award.
The lanky centre chalked up 28 points in his first game of the tournament against Maccabees. Forwards Mortimer Williams and Sheldon Howell scored 14 points each for Nets in Sunday night’s game to help with the team’s offence. Howell also grabbed 11 rebounds for his second consecutive double/double.
Steven Couchman led the scoring for Royals with 11 points while Mark Richards and Anson Durant both scored 10 points in the game.
In the second game, Kings set up a semi-final clash with Nets tonight at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall with a 48-38 victory over Wismar Pistons.
Kings’ centre Jason Alonzo finished with 14 points while Omally Sampson had 12 points in the game that saw none of the Pistons’ players reaching double figures – Enkosi Gurrick and Kelvin Boston had eight points each for Pistons.
According to the NLE 2007 fixture, Nets will play defending champions, Kings tonight at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in the first semi-final encounter.
The second semi-final between Pacesetters and Scorpions is set for Thursday at the same venue.
Nets face their toughest challenge in the 2007 tournament tonight when they come up against the champions. However with the strong performances of Johnson so far, it is clear that he will play a major role in the outcome of the game.
Two areas of concern for the Nets unit are the absence of a coach to run the bench and the absence of the team’s starting point guard, Jermaine McAllister from the team’s tournament roster.
McAllister’s absence leaves a vacuum at the top of the key for the team while reducing its face break chances on offence. The Nets cannot risk their game against Kings by playing without someone to ‘run’ the bench. The level of concentration that is required against Kings will not allow the Nets to control the bench from inside the game as they have done to date.
The team needs to raise the bar against Kings.
Williams and Howell along with guard Pelham Doris are some of the big names for Nets in the tournament. Forward Triston Tulloch has also been stepping up for the team. They will need all their charges to come up big tonight.
Kings are expected to employ their usual sharp shooting from outside the arc to gain easy offensive advantages. Marvin Hartman will lead the team’s shooting prowess while Alonzo controls the bottom.
Kings are also playing without one of their top guards in Steve Neils Jr. Kings are expected to be more systematic owing to the fact that last year’s national coach, Abdullah Hamid is responsible for setting the plays and dealing with the bench.
However, Nets’ man-to-man skills are as good as any team in the country. Nets has been one of the more consistent teams in Georgetown for the past 12 months.
The team can feed off its victory against Pacesetters in the Georgetown first division league tournament in the only game the Courts’ unit lost in that series. Nets is ranked number three in Georgetown.
