The final of the third Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation (GABF) Road to Mecca club championships between Linden’s Retrieve Raiders and Georgetown’s Colts came to an abrupt and embarrassing abandonment Saturday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
With the score 54-51 in favour of Colts and 9:18s remaining in the final period, chaos ensued following a double technical foul being called on Omally Sampson and Abdulla Hamid respectively.
The deliberations that ensued with the officials by Raiders players Hamid and Dwayne Roberts over the foul calls resulted in Roberts being ejected from the game.
What followed were embarrassing scenes as Raiders exited the arena alongside their fans while airing their frustration at alleged biased officiating, to much heckling from the Georgetown supporters.
During this time, the Colts team was camped out in their technical area watching the scenes unfold.
GABF President Nigel Hinds quickly stepped in to pacify the situation and, after a 20-minute deliberation outside the venue, the Raiders team and their faithful following returned.
The deliberations, though, continued on the court for another 20 minutes as footage, which led to the double technical being called was reviewed by the head official, the Raiders captain and the federation chief.
Upon reviewing the footage, Hinds ruled that no foul was committed, in contrast to the view of the head official and the Raiders leader.
It seemed like good sense would prevail and the contest would resume but after waiting for 40 minutes, the Georgetown unit decided to take their exit from the arena amid jeers from the Linden fans, effectively ending the contest.
Hamid, in an invited comment, said the officiating had been poor throughout the event adding that it seemed like his team was playing against the officials.
Roberts added that officiating continues to be a sore point in the country and said that the team exited the venue under protest due to the biased officiating to discuss the issues.
He said that every team has the right to play under protest and that following a review of the video, it was deemed that the officials had made serious errors.
Mike Singh, President of Colts and Vice President of the GABF said that he decided to pull his team from the match as the actions taken by the opponents could not be condoned.
He pointed out that his team had waited for 40 minutes for the issue to be resolved and that decisions such as this puts the sport in a bad light and makes sponsors apprehensive to throw their support behind the discipline.
Efforts to contact GABF President Hinds for a comment proved futile.
Prior to the abandonment, Raiders seized early control, outscoring Colts 18-14 at the end of the first period.
The roles would be reversed in the second stanza as Colts outshot Raiders 23-13 to seize a 37-31 halftime lead.
The third period threatened to be all about the Linden unit as they raced off to a 7-0 run to seize the lead at 38-37.
However, Colts stormed back in the latter minutes, out hustling Raiders 17-12 to seize a four-point lead (54-50) going into the final period.
Despite the contest setting up for a thrilling finish, the contest was abandoned was quality of refereeing was questioned by the visitors.
Winner of the event will pocket $500,000 and the championship trophy while the second placed unit will receive $250,000 and the corresponding accolade.
Meanwhile, Pacesetters defeated former champion Ravens 78-75 to clinch the third position. Due to the result, Pacesetters pocketed $150,000 and the respective accolade while the loser collected $100,000 and the corresponding accolade.
