GABA League Championships 2017…
The Basketball season got underway on Wednesday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, Homestretch Avenue with the second edition of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association’s League Championships 2017 with Dyna’s Ravens and University of Guyana (UG) Trojans notching up victories in the Under-23 category.
In the opening contest, Bounty Colts were defeated by a rampant Ravens team who seemed to be feeding off of the hype of the crowd of basketball lovers while a nail biting end to the UG Trojans-Eagles ended the night on a high point.
Ravens romped past Colts 64-55, having gotten off to a slow start. Colts jumped the gun and started like a team on a mission, leading 11-8 in the first period and then extending the gap to 10 as Ravens slipped further behind 25-15.
But the second half completely belonged to Ravens who returned like a different team finding their spirit to produce two outstanding periods. In the third, Ravens notched up 22 points and 27 in the last period while Colts only managed 17 and 13 respectively.
On their way to victory, Ravens were lead valiantly by Trenson Burnett and Murthland Ward who both produced 18 points to halt the assentation of Colts lead by Jonathon Managra (16 points) and Timothy Thompson (15 points).
Meanwhile, in the second contest, UG looked as if they were going to run away with the match, taking an eight-point lead in the first period with the score at 14-6.
UG took the second period as well, but this time by a smaller margin, a sign that Eagles looked to be soaring once more as the score line read 27-17.
However, getting down to the business end of the match, Eagles found their wings and tried to make a turnaround in the contest and secure a come from behind win, outscoring UG by seven points to bring the deficit down to three.
But when the final buzzer sounded, both teams had managed to score 17 points in the last period to see UG coming out on top.
Sherland Gillis with 14 points and Kadeem Peterkin with 13 points were all that was required by UG to fend of Eagles who threatened with Travis Belgrave scoring 17 points.
The next fixture will see three more exciting matches as Pacesetters will come up against Guardians in an Under-23 match while Colts will play UG and Eagles will play Guardians in two open matches.
The contest sees Colts, UG, Pacesetters and Sonics in Group A, Guardians, Ravens, Nets and Eagles in Group B. Also, Colts, Pacesetters, Guardians, Ravens and Eagles are the Under 23 teams.
The top two teams from the two groups will advance to the semifinals and the winners will play best of three in the finals while the top four under 23 teams will advance to the semifinals and the winners play best of three in the finals.
