Can the Colts go all the way?

– Coach Panday favours their chances of stunning
Ravens as tribute to the late Phillip George

The new-look Colts Basket-ball Club is the talk of the town especially after their stunning victory over Georgetown’s top club Court Pacesetters last weekend to advance to the finals of the Pepsi Sonics Refresh your Games Basketball tournament on Burnham Court.

Colts did not just beat the Pacesetters in last weekend’s division one semi-final, they blew them away 75-54. The Colts proved that their win against the Pacesetters earlier this year in the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association’s (GABA) league was no fluke as they eliminated the Pacesetters on their home court by a whopping 21-point deficit.

Vijay Panday

In last weekend’s semi-final, University of Guyana student Shelroy Thomas  top scored with 22 points, while seasoned power forward Gavin Beeram added 17 and former junior national captain Dave Causeway contributed 16.

Colts’ new coach VijaiPanday said that he is confident in his team’s chances of defeating Ravens to win their first tournament in several years. Panday took over coaching the Colts after his mentor, Phillip George passed away last December. Panday managed to recruit a few players from his former team (Scorpions) along with some free agents, and now he thinks he has found quite a resilient unit.

“The strength of the team is that it is a rounded team, each and every member contributes to the team and the things is, we have both young players like Shelroy and Sheldon Thomas and Dave Causeway as well as experienced players like Gavin Beeram and Dane Kendall,” Panday said.

Panday said that the recent addition of Causeway has been tremendously beneficial to the team’s offensive and made them a more cohesive unit.

“Dave Causeway,well he was something that we were missing. Sheldon (Thomas) and Shelroy (Thomas) are not point guards so we had needed somebody who could lead from the front and Dave has been doing that and doing a great job,” Panday said.

Causeway and Thomas are both from Kwakwani and have similar styles of play. Causeway captained Guyana at the Inter Guiana Games in 2006 and again in 2007 when Guyana won the male basketball title.

Additionally, Panday said that Kendall had not even been present during their commanding win against the Pacesetters last weekend but he will be present to face Ravens. With this in mind, Panday said that he is confident in his team’s chances against the Ravens as they will be at full strength.

“We should win. We got a 100 percent chance of winning.  I’m not too over confident though but we been training hard and once we come out and play as hard as we did against Pacesetters and stay focussed we should win,” Panday said.

While Panday admitted that Ravens may be a tougher team to beat than Pacesetters, he was of the opinion that his side and the Ravens are evenly matched and winning will be down to execution on game night.

It is Panday’s hope that a championships win on Sunday night will provide the boost that the Colts need as they prepare to launch the Phillip George Memorial Basketball tournament. The final is expected to commence at 21:00Hhrs following the division three finals between Pacesetters and Demerara Colours Panthers which is slated to tip off at 19:00hrs.