Pinelands make light work of Celtics

By Morissa Lindsay

Three top players scored in double digits as Pinelands A won 93-53 against fellow Premier League team City United Celtics when the 2022 Co-operators General Insurance Barbados Amateur Basketball Association Club Challenge continued last night in the Pine, St. Michael.

Led by their centre players, Kiserian Adams with a game-high 24 points and Deveron Knight with 20 points, Pinelands led and dominated the first three quarters 31-14, 53-28 and 81-36.

The shooters also contributed for Pinelands including talented point guard Derion Hurley who added 13 to the score sheet.

Celtics had a good blend of players including veteran Stephenson Callender with a top score of 17 points. The young crop of players recruited by the Celtics such as Kaliel Austin played well (12 points) as well as Rachad Hall and Antone Lawrence who added ten each to the score.

No doubt Pinelands had the better team with some of Barbados’ best in the mix and they did a good job of keeping Celtics big man, Jonathan Dottin quiet. That made the difference for the home team. Pinelands led 7-0 in the early stages of the opening quarter and carried that momentum throughout with lots of fastbreaks and easy lay-ups.

With Dottin at over six feet tall unable to score a single point in the first quarter and barely scraping a total of four points in the entire match, this demonstrated how potent the Pineland’s A team played on defence against the Celtics. In addition, while the Celtics had about seven players on the night to call upon, Pinelands on the other hand had an array of men who were well rotated by head coach Renaldo Maughn. Maughn had the talented point guard Jeremy Gill to call upon, along with other seasoned player such as Charles Vanderpool and Junior Moore.

Pinelands extended their lead to a whopping 20 points (44-24) in the second quarter of the match which did not come as a surprise given the number of fastbreaks they were able to capitalize on.

While scoring opportunities presented themselves, the referees Jennifer Joseph- Hackett and Richard Spencer also had their work cut out for them. In the latter stages of the second quarter, Vanderpool allowed his aggression to get the better of him when he walked off the court and proceeded to kick a plastic white chair located near the scorers’ table in anger.

This all stemmed from Vanderpool requesting a substitution from coach Maughn who stalled in doing so. Vanderpool then took hold of possession and went solo to the basket where he ended up missing one of the easiest layup chances. Based on the crowd’s reaction, they too were in disbelief that a man with Vanderpool’s capabilities missed the basket. That is when Vanderpool got upset and did not play for the remainder of the match.

On any given day that should have been a technical but he got away with it even though Celtics coach Sidney ‘Bouncer’ Rowe tried to draw what transpired to the referees’ attention who seemingly missed it. When this situation unfolded Pinelands were up 46-25 and then had a comfortable 53-28 advantage at halftime.

While Vanderpool escaped sanction from the referees, Celtics point guard Antone Lawrence was not as fortunate as he was penalised for openly cursing in the presence of the referees in the third quarter.

Despite Vanderpool removing himself from the match, Pinelands young big men were able to step up and delivered as Knight and fellow centre Kemar Benn brought good intensity.

Knight in particular put on a show during the third stanza as he accounted for three consecutive dunks as Pinelands built a strong 66-33 lead at that stage of the encounter and never looked back.

In the opening match of the night, Barbados Lumber Company Lakers Sports Club defeated Kolij Lions 71-34 (24-16, 44-22, 58-30) in yet another one-sided affair. Justin Bramao top- scored with 22 and Tyreke Harewood 20 as those two led the attack for Lakers. For Lions Ramone Blackman tallied 16 and Christopher Holder 10 for the Crumpton Street lads.

Meanwhile, at Bay Street, Church Village Spartans A won 69-48 (18-9, 35-26, 49-39) over Panthers. Police Sports Club trounced Burger King Clapham Bulls B 71-31 (14-5, 25-16, 47-23) in the second game of the night.

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb