‘Free throws win games’ was the thought on everyone’s mind when North Ruimveldt Ravens, led by Dominic Vincente, dominated their rivals, the Royals, to advance further in the Guyana Basketball Federation’s (GBF) national and international tournament on Thursday evening at the National Gymnasium on Mandela Avenue.
Coming to the contest with vengeance on their minds, in the first quarter, the Royals managed to penetrate their opponents’ defense while they displayed an ability to utilize every opportunity to score with every chance received. They thus grabbed an early 19-10 lead that set the game’s tempo.
Ravens Captain Dominic Vincente
The second quarter saw the Royals continuing to show their ability to penetrate their opponents’ defense, and they scored 13 points in that session to elevate their score to 32 points, whereas the Ravens scored only 9 points to take their total to 19 at the end of that quarter.
Third-quarter action saw the North Ruimveldt outfit keeping their composure and enabling themselves to minimize the Royals’ lead to two points. As the Ravens managed to come out on top of proceedings, they scored 26 points that elevated their score to 45, while the Colts were restricted to 15 points and their total to 47 points at the end of that quarter.
Fourth quarter saw both teams lacking in defense, and it rained buckets on both sides of the court. Ravens managed to convert 24 points while the Royals scored 26 much-needed points, and the game went into overtime with the score tied at 69.
In overtime, Ravens recuperated and secured their comeback victory in scoring 12 points, elevating their score to 81 points while the Royals were able to net only 10 points for a total score of 79.
In a post-match interview with <<Guyana Times Sport,>> Ravens Captain Dominic Vincente emphasized the key elements needed in their game against DeArand of Suriname on Saturday when he said, “We just got to measure the team, because this is somewhat of a new group; because we brought some youngsters up from the under-23s. I know we have a new recruit, Nikolai. Right now, this game was a feel-out game for us. We had to measure the team. So, going into the next game, we can do better because everything was videoed, so we can all look at our mistakes and our wins as well too. And then we’re going to pull through to the Saturday.”
The Ravens will take to the field at the same venue on Saturday as they take on DeArand of Suriname in a match that would conclude the international aspect of the tournament.
