By Floyd Christie
The Albouystown-Charles-town basketball team delivered a clinical trouncing of Central Mackenzie Sunday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall to sweep the best of three finals of the Mackeson National Super Ward competition.
Central Mackenzie suffered an overwhelming 20 points defeat when game two ended 82-62.
The win meant that Albouystown-Charlestown had played unbeaten throughout the tournament securing seven consecutive wins.
Coming off a valiant game one performance the night before, Central Mackenzie once again got off to an aggressive start, trading baskets with their opponents in the first half which ended 38-36 in favour of Alboystown-Charlestown.
Going into the third quarter Central Mackenzie began to pattern the trend of their previous games and the Linden side began to slip amidst unwavering defence and constant offensive pressure from Albouystown-Charlestown.
The Georgetown side began to increase their lead on the scoreboard and this in turn increased the tempers of some Central Mackenzie players as nothing seemed to be going their way. They picked up three technical fouls in under two minutes and this did not in anyway aid their cause as their opponents made good of the free throws awarded thereby increasing the lead.
At this point it was all downhill for the Linden squad and they found themselves trailing by seven points at the end of the third quarter.
With the scores 57-50 at the beginning of the final period, Central Mackenzie found themselves in a similar position as the night before in game one of the finals.
This time around Albouystown-Charlestown made no mistake and duly kept Central Mackenzie out of the game. Dwayne `Brown Sugar’ Roberts piloted his team’s performance and, backed by Travis ‘Cook-up’ Foster on the inside the pair wreaked havoc in the Central Mackenzie paint.
Roberts’ baby jumpers at the bottom of the key amounted to nothing but net, while the high flying Foster tipped in the spoils and before they knew it, the seven-point deficit at the start of the quarter became a 20-point deficit with the clock winding down.
For Central Mackenzie it was over long before the fat lady started to sing and they began to walk off the court and congratulate their opponents with time still remaining on the clock.
Roberts posted a double-double with a game high 25 points and 12 rebounds. He was aided by Foster’s 15 points and eight rebounds while Akeem Kanhai had another productive evening, contributing 13 points which included three baskets from the three-point range.
For Central Mackenzie Steve Neils Jnr. was the only player to attain double figures. He netted 22 points.
Prior to Albouystown-Charlestown’s championship win, Christianburg came from behind to grab third place in the tournament after edging North Ruimveldt 76-74 in their third place match-up.
Down by 18 points at halftime, Christianburg switched gears and accelerated their scoring to pull off the improbable. They more than doubled their first half total in the third quarter and limited North Ruimveldt to seven points when the third quarter ended with Christianburg leading 53-50.
Christianburg’s high scoring carried over to the final period and they snatched a third place win from a tough North Ruimveldt line-up who were kept at bay as they fell short by two points in the end.
Dwight Cooper and Quincy Jones scored 21 and 16 points respectively for Christianburg.
North Ruimveldt’s Ryan Stephney recorded a game high 22 points and Darcel Harris contributed 15.
Meanwhile, an exhibition game and prize-giving ceremony will be held on Saturday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall where prizes will be awarded to the Most Valuable Player and the successful teams in the tournament.