Pepsi Sonics basketball team dethroned reigning champions Nets 69-65 to in the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association’s Bryden’s Second Division League Tournament held on Sunday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
The Pepsi Sonics maintained a flawless record throughout the tournament even in the first round which included the participation of guest teams comprising past and present national players.
Led by coach Mark Agard and his-all defence mentality, combined with the explosive scoring of shooting guard Ryan Melville, Pepsi Sonics kept the Nets from tarnishing their spotless record. Melville could not be contained, registering a game-high 27 points when his team needed him the most and was suitably adjudged the most valuable player of the finals. In a press release issued yesterday, Agard said that his team was fully prepared for the tournament both in their fitness as well as their on-court training.
He said team preparation combined with the knowledge to correctly apply what they had learnt in the game situations, contributed tremendously to the team’s victory.
Joe Ifill and Drumson Macaulay led the Nets in scoring with 19 and 17 points respectively almost mirroring their scoring performances in the semifinal match against Maccabees.
Apart from Melville, Aubrey Austin (12), Collis Pluck (nine points) and Jason Squires (eight points) contributed to Sonics’ winning total. In the battle for third place, Scorpions sought the assistance of Rawle Toney -who had been inactive on their roster for a while – to give them a boost to overcome the Maccabees73-72.
Toney teamed-up with dunking sensation Travis ‘Cook Up’ Foster and they each scored 15 points to lead Scorpions to victory. The top scorers for Maccabees were Devon Cameron with 13 points and Hodayah Stewart who finished with nine points.
