Old foes to clash for senior Basketball title

By Morissa Lindsay

The battle lines have been drawn as Burger King Clapham Bulls skillful point guard Rahiim Gibbons and Pinelands A talented centre Deveron Knight led their respective teams to the final of the Co-operators General Insurance Barbados Amateur Basketball Association Club Challenge last night at the Barbados Community College.

In the opening semifinals of the night, Bulls predictably earned their place in the final with a 61-54 victory as they led the three opening stanzas 18-8, 35-24 and 47-45 against Station Hill Cavaliers thanks to point guards Rahiim Gibbons and Shaquan Newton with 18 and 17 points respectively.

They will face Pinelands who had an impressive 97-87 win against Barbados Lumber Company Lakers who despite some levels of resistance could not stop the Pine-based team from dominating 32-17, 58-42 and 77-63 in the first three quarters that laid the foundation for a well-deserved triumph.

Bulls who are the reigning BABA Premier League champions were first on the scoresheet against Cavaliers, but the fact that it took three minutes into the opening quarter for the first two points to be registered when Bulls centre Romain Lovell accounted for two free throws was a clear indication that it would be a strong defensive battle between the two sides.

Within seconds after Lovell scored, Gibbons capitalized on a fast break opportunity and put Bulls out front with a four-point lead. It did not matter who Cavaliers put to mark Gibbons, whether it was Zachary Cave who had a top score of 17 points or Saeed Norville with ten points for their team, they could not stop him inside or outside the arc.

Lovell and Gibbons were the stand-outs for Bulls in the opening half but the show belonged to former Graydon Sealy Secondary School outstanding basketballers Newton and Andrew Ifill, as they brought a high level of energy to court with their strong attacking plays.

Manuel Alleng so far in this tournament has played with a level of confidence that is beautiful to watch. Like Ifill, he also brought a good defensive energy to the match.

It was no surprise that Bulls were up 18-8 when the first quarter concluded and had an 11-point advantage (35-24) at halftime. Cavaliers coach Adrian Craigwell had his work cut out for him early as his players just were not clicking on offence or defence.

Cavaliers were so much under pressure that Craigwell was forced to bring on one of his junior Under-19 players Gavon Phillips as early as the second quarter and the young man, as physical a match as it was for him at this level, held his own on both ends of the court.

Truth be told, Cavaliers needed a seasoned player like Darren Hunte to get more involved but that did not happen as he did not attack the basket as fans have grown to expect from him over the years. However, Joel Hunte, the younger brother of Darren, made his presence felt securing the rebounds and scoring the layups whenever the opportunity presented itself as he registered 12 points in the game.

Down four (47-43) in the third quarter, credit to Cavaliers for putting up a fight with ten seconds to play before the period concluded. Shane Rock scored an assist from Norville to cut the deficit by two (47-45) which made for an interesting battle in the decisive stanza.

In the final period, Cavaliers wasted no time as Norville once again got in on the action, dunked and equalized 47-47. But Newton responded right away on the other end with an incredible three-point shot followed with consecutive two point jumpers that extended the advantage 55-47 and gave Bulls an important advantage.

Unfortunately, though, Bulls centre Tehron King injured what appeared to be his left knee with six minutes and 36 seconds left in the game. After being attended to by the bench, King left the court limping and it will be interesting to see if he recovers between now and the final because Bulls need him.

Coached by Ryan Leacock, Bulls went ahead 61-47 with two minutes left in the game and that was good enough for them to secure the win as Cavaliers found it increasingly difficult on offence.

In the second matchup of the night, Pinelands missed out on scoring a hundred against Lakers as their go too scorers – Deveron Knight with a game-high 30 points along with point guards Rasheed Maynard, 21, Derion Hurley with 18 and his younger brother Deroni with 15 – delivered once again.

Pinelands, coached by Renaldo Maughn, held a 20-point lead for the majority of the second half as Lakers coached by Derek Browne had their work cut out on defence trying to make stops where possible.

It was interesting that the Lakers coach would put Jamal Singh to mark one of Pinelands main offensive danger men in Maynard. It was not much of a contest because Maynard dribbled and scored past Singh frequently. Added to that, the experienced Mark Bridgeman struggled
to keep up at times with Pinelands centre Knight who has a fearless approach when attacking the basket.

Pinelands also strategically got Lakers forward Justin Bramao – with 12 points in the match – out of the game in the fourth quarter when he fouled out early. But all was not lost for Lakers because point guard David Walkes with a smooth three point shot to start the fourth quarter top scored with 18 points and was able to get more ball play with Bramao’s exit.

Also contributing to Lakers overall total were Anand Joseph Thorne with 15 points, Brandon Ruck tallied 14 and captain Bridgeman added 11 points.

Lakers down ten (81-71) were cheered on by their supporters, “let’s go Lakers, let’s go”, and that they did because it was suddenly a six-point game at 83-77 and for the first time in the match Pinelands began to feel some pressure.

However, the Pinelands pair of Maynard and Knight, both registering offensive rebounds at the back end of the game, showed that Lakers were not boxing out properly and that allowed coach Maughn and his men to reclaim their ten point lead and they never looked back.

morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb