Pinelands ‘Take no Prisoners’ as they overrun Church Village

By Morissa Lindsay

Forward Deveron Knight had a game-high 28 points that contributed to Pinelands A team registering a comfortable 93-55 hammering of Church Village Spartans B, who failed to live up to their lofty title, when action continued in the 2022 Co-operators General Insurance Barbados Amateur Basketball Association Club Challenge last night.

Played in Pinelands, St. Michael, the host definitely took advantage of competing in their own backyard as they dominated 22-10, 49-23 and 74-34 in the first three quarters of the game and were unstoppable on both offence and defence.

Besides the athletic and energetic Knight, the Pinelands team have some talented point guards that can shoot well and the Hurley brothers Deroni and Derion are among them. Deroni accounted for 18 points inclusive of five three pointers, four of which were scored in the first quarter while his older brother Derion contributed nine points.

Other quality players on Pinelands bench were Kiserian Adams scoring 14 and Rasheed Maynard 12 while the senior members on the team Charles Vanderpool and Junior Moore along with young Kemar Benn tallied four points each.

It was no rocket science after the initial exchanges that Pinelands A would win, it was just a matter of by what margin given their blend of players in the squad and their ability to cover both sides of the court. Knight was fearless going up against Spartans B leading big man Dale Franklyn who scored 12.

Fellow premier league side Spartans B entered the match with a mere five players and while they fought to ensure that the scoreline was not too embarrassing when the final whistle sounded by referees Shakira Shorey and Richard Spencer who did a great job, they struggled to keep up with Pinelands on both sides of the court.

Those who contributed to Spartans B overall total was their wingman Damien Skeete who accounted for 18 points along with Larry King with nine, John- Paul Alleyne with six and Curtis Belgrave who added four.

 

 

There was a psychological game that played out on the court between Maynard of Pinelands who did a good job of getting into the head of Alleyne who came close to getting into foul trouble with four of them to his name. Basically, it was a case of Maynard telling Alleyne repeatedly that he was “no good” and of course the latter did not keep quiet on hearing such a taunt.

Besides those two going at it, Spartans deserve credit for trailing as closely as they did and in the fourth quarter down 53-88, the men in green capitalized on those timeouts for a bit of respite, given they did not have any reserve players on the bench. However, that could not save them from the inevitable as Pinelands A were too many and too much to handle.

Pinelands B team also featured on court in the opening match of the night but were not as successful when they loss 75-20 (20-10, 45-14, 65-18) against Burger King Clapham Bulls who continue to reign as the BABA Premier League kings.

For sure Pinelands B had their work cut out for them against the top rated Clapham Bulls side as Manuel Alleng led the score sheet with 17 points. Shaquan Newton accounted for 16 points followed by Romaine Lovell who scored 13.

Simeon Maynard, based overseas for the past couple of months, is back on home soil and he let his presence felt with ten points. Clapham Bull captain and their outstanding point guard Rahim Gibbons along with Tehron King and Joshua Gibbs tallied six each. Gibbons’ promising younger brother Nayiib Browne added two as well to the overall total. Surprisingly Bulls top forward Andrew Ifill did not register a single point.

It was a physical encounter as both teams played a strong game inside the paint and kept the officiating referees Rene Batson and Jennifer Joseph- Hackett very busy with their whistles. Pinelands B captain Kadeem Brathwaite registered five points. Anthony Maynard scored four while Nathan Estwick and Miguel Gibson had three each.

In other matches played last night in Belfield, Black Rock, Station Hill Cavaliers were easily victorious 99-39 (24-3, 51-10, 71-25) over East Avenue Realtors Young Bears. Meanwhile also at the same venue JG Checker Hall Braves trounced Hinds Transport Services Pirates 52-39 (7-10, 25-19, 37-31).

(morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb)