The refurbished Burnham Hardcourt was witness to one of the most exhilarating basketball tournaments Guyana has ever hosted. The Rawle Toney 3×3 Classic finale saw Linden cart off the coveted title and $500,000 after 10 minutes of intense action on the court. The Royals bagged $100,000 as their runners-up prize.
Rawle Toney
Tensions were high from the moment the players were seen doing their warmup drills as half of a million dollars was now on the line. For the teams, what was once a dream had now become a reality. It was either “go big or go home”; both teams had exceptional players in their corner. Linden featured Daniel Omondi, Stanton Rose, Harold Adam, and Shelroy Thomas while Royals had Orlan Glasgow, Marlon Pollydore, Yonnick Tappin, and Joel Webster. The game began with slow scoring in the first half as both teams exhibited exceptional offence and defence; at one point, the score was 7-6 with Linden in the lead and one minute and forty-eight seconds remaining on the clock.
Guardians came in third
However, Linden held their nerve and pulled off a stunner, managing to keep Royals at bay with the final score reading 8-7, Thomas was adjudged the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the tournament.
Royals came in second
Earlier in the tournament – in the first semi-final, it was Pitbulls versus Royals. The match was fire from jump time as both teams played aggressive basketball, fighting to book their spot in the final. Pitbulls, who were the defending champions, put up a good fight, but, in the end, they lost by two points as Royals won 7-5.
The players pose with their championship rings, compliments of Jacobs Jewellery
In the second semi-final, Guardians duked it out with Linden. This match had the crowd on their feet: both teams put in the extra effort. The players sometimes fell and they rose, nothing was going to stop them taking a shot at $500,000, but alas, Linden were too good and went past the Guardians 15-12.
Shelroy Thomas was adjudged the MVP
In the third-place match, Pitbulls were set to take on Guardians, but the former opted not to play, handing Guardians the win.
Linden celebrate their win
At the end of the tournament, founder Rawle Toney had this to say, “Taking into account all the challenges I had to face and all the hurdles I had to face to see this event through, I would not call it a success but a huge major success, because we had to take into consideration – shift in venue. As the idea was to present a premium 3×3 basketball tournament at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and not being able to use the venue and moving to Burnham Court in which we had a wonderful turnout. We had to deal with the weather and it all turned out well. We had challenges with teams, players and a couple of other things, but nonetheless it came out just how I envisioned and I want to say thank you to everyone.”
Linden in action
Toney further said that he was grateful to the media, the sponsors, the players, the sport gamer from the Guyana Basketball Federation and Guyana Basketball Official Council as everyone played their part in making the event a huge success.
The tournament was sponsored by Team Mohamed’s, Modern Building Solutions, Medicine Chest, Mackeson, Guyana Lottery Company, Trophy Stall, Hennessy, FireSide Grill, Bush Cook, Stuff, MVP Sports, FK Sports, Shi Oil, Brother’s Security, The Muse Bar, Pressy’s Gift Shop, Cigar and Cognac, 94.1 Boom FM, Fireside Grill N Chill, and E-Networks.
