By Rawle Toney
Team Guyana played with much enthusiasm but was overpowered by the visiting South Carolina Lady All-Stars team 63-35 at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on Friday night as the US based team began their goodwill tour on a positive note.
Playing in front of a small but highly vocal and appreciative crowd, both teams from jump ball seemed poised to deliver an exciting game with Guyana registering the first points of the game with a lay-up inside by Natasha Alder who received a pass from point guard Sonia Rodney.
The local ladies, who have been dormant for sometime, initially played as though they had regular competitions but that display only lasted for a few minutes as the visitors began to mesh and then it was basketball at its finest.
Having Crystal Clary and Eboni Littlejohn sweeping almost all the rebounds and guards Krystal Scott and Maya Grady taking charge of the backcourt, the team from the south side of the US entertained the crowed with some fine displays of basketball made easy.
Alder’s lay-up turned out to be the lone basket for Guyana who trailed 13-2 and it didn’t get better as the game progressed.
Centre Nicola Jacobs, Alder and Rodney were the core players of the Guyana team and also the livewire of both offense and defense but it was only so much that they could have done.
Coach Larry Davis rotated his players well while the Guyanese coach Mark Agard found it difficult trying to contain the more seasoned visitors as the points continued to pile on.
At half time Guyana was down by 19 points (30-11).
Scott and Grady teamed up to become a thorn in the feet of the Guyanese ladies; literally being all over the court and thrilling the crowd with the fancy dribbling and on the button passes.
Apart from Clary, shooting guard India Elliott and forward Alicia Abernathy also enjoyed a fruitful game, hitting their baseline jump shots without hindrance.
However, the Guyanese ladies played with gusto and even though they were down practically for the entire game, anyone walking into the venue without looking at the scoreboard would have felt that the game was competitive.
Clary led the semi-pro team with a game high 18 points while Abernathy was their next highest scorer as all of their players found themselves on the score sheet.
Timiki Joseph led the fight for the locals finishing with 13 points while Alder chipped in with seven.
After the game, Davis said that he was satisfied with how the locals looked and believed they put up a good fight to the SC ladies whom he says have made basketball part of their lives.
The two teams were at it again last night but up to press time, the outcome of the game was not known.
