The Maccabees basketball team’s 2-0 record was blemished by the Nets first loss in a 65-62 double overtime game during Sunday evening’s Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association’s Brydens second division league at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
After blowing out their first two opponents, the Maccabees came out and struggled to execute their offense and their opponents made it extremely hard for them by playing tight defense early.
The two teams traded baskets the entire game and the scores were dead even at halftime 21-21 and at the end of regulation 47-47.
Maccabees shot 47 percent from the free throw line for the night. Many of the free throws were missed at critical stages of the game with K’naniel Stewart being the chief culprit as he missed seven of eight free throws for the night.
Coach/player of the Maccabees basketball club Kezqweyah Yisrael told Stabroek Sport yesterday that his team did not demonstrate the unselfishness and up-beat approach that’s a usual characteristic of their game and that was identified as their downfall.
Maccabees would fight hard to eventually force a double overtime, but with their shooters out-of-touch and their poor free throw shooting prevailing in double overtime, they could not match scoring with Nets.
“We did not play unselfish and that was why we could not develop the rhythm that helped to blow out those other teams. The ball was held too much by our guards, and was not allowed to rotate and break down the defense as we had planned and more work was put on our perimeter shooters since the post players did not get the ball enough,” he said.
The leading scorer for the Nets was Drunson Maculy with 24 points while Telham Doris added 13 points. Hodayah Stewart led the way for Maccabees with 14 points while ex-Pacesetter Desmond Chin came off the bench to add 12 points to the Maccabees’ total.
Earlier that evening, Junior Hercules scored 23 points to lead the Scorpion to a 76-54 victory against the Pioneers. Sheldon Braithwaite also chipped in with a respectable 16 points to help the Scorpions gain their first win of the Brydens second division league.
Royd Overton registered 14 points for the Pioneers while Linden Smith added eight points.
