Clad in green, the male national basketball team on Monday evening endured two rounds of overtime to clinch their second victory at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships/FIBA Americup pre-qualifiers in Suriname.
The national men’s basketball team
Early on in the match-up, Guyana found themselves with an eight-point deficit to St Vincent and the Grenadines, a lead that often extended within the first two quarters of the game, but the local boys dug deep to put on another stellar performance at the Anthony Nesty Sporthal in Paramaribo.
With a few keen words from Coach Junior Hercules and a change of their game plan, Guyana found themselves back in the game after trailing St Vincent.
By the end of the third quarter, both teams were tied up on 62 points. With Guyana capitalising on quick plays and SVG using their height advantage, the match-up could have swung either way, but as fate would have it, the scores remained tied on 81 at the ring of the final buzzer. However, it is no secret that the narrative of the game would have been different had Guyana been consistent with their free throw opportunities. The local team were only able to sink fewer than 50 per cent of their 34 attempts.
Going into their first overtime, Guyana had a newfound burst of energy which they used to match every shot that the SVG made. Another tie on 96 meant that the Stanton Rose-led Guyanese side would have another shot at victory.
Producing a series-high 41 points, the 18-year-old captain copped a critical rebound near the ending of the second overtime. Surrounded by the five St Vincent and the Grenadines players, Rose set up Ray Victor’s last two-pointer, which turned out to be the winning points of the game. The nail-biting match-up eventually ended on 102-104 in Guyana’s favour.
Alongside Rose’s stunning 41 points, which consisted of nine three-pointers, Ray Victor contributed 15.
This is the second win in two games that Guyana have recorded – the first being a 93-64 blow-out victory over Grenada. In that match-up, Kevon Wiggins’ 18 points and Shaine Webster’s 16 points allowed the Guyanese team to get away from Grenada at an early stage in the game, a lead that the Grenadian team were never really able to recover from.
In their next CBC encounter, the national team will play Suriname later today at 21:00h.
