Inter-ward basketball final North Ruimveldt take title with clean sweep
Ifill grabs lion's share of awards
By Clyde Pestano
Stabroek News
February 10, 2004
A battered but undaunted North Ruimveldt team without the services of inspirational captain Lugard Mohan on court, last Sunday battled their way to an emotionally satisfying `clean sweep' of their best-of-three basketball finals against nemesis Wortmanville/Werk-en-Rust to gain sweet revenge after losing to that team in last year's tournament.
The game brought to a close the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation/Courts Pacesetters/Carib Malta inter-ward basketball competition, which was played at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
The previous night North had drawn first blood and after that victory captain Rondal Murphy had told Stabroek Sport that his team did not want to play a third game.
After his team's victory he gushed, "see what I told you, we delivered again!" He added, "we knew we had to play hard and in the end we figured that with Warde [Jermaine] and Loncke [Naylon] in foul trouble we applied the pressure allowing us to seize the advantage."
Murphy gave thanks to God for the victory and said that they were thankful to their many supporters also and friends.
According to him, after Mohan was injured and sidelined Mohan had told him that he was the one to pick up the mantle of leadership of the team. Murphy was also high in praise for his teammates and said that MVP of the tournament and the finals Andrew Ifill is a brilliant player and should get his just rewards by being allowed to take up a basketball scholarship in the USA.
Apart from the two MVP accolades Ifill also took home the `most rebounds' trophy for his rebounding efforts.
The game started in somewhat of an anti-climax when captain Murphy inexplicably brought down and having to be helped off the court by members of the Guyana Red Cross Society who were part of an exhibition game earlier in the evening.
He seemed to have sustained muscle spasms in his lower back but was eventually able to rejoin the fray later in the contest.
The game resumed and North Ruimveldt eked out a small two-point lead at the end of the first period 17-15.
The second quarter was a ding-dong tussle for supremacy as the lead changed hands with regular frequency with the defence of both sides putting in sterling performances. When that period of play ended Wortmanville seemed to have turned the tide in their favour, with an important five-point advantage 41-36.
On the resumption Wortmanville threatened to wrest the game away from North with a blistering performance as they notched up a lead of as much as 13 at one point 58-45, their best segment of the game.
However, towards the end of the third, the injured Mohan who has to undergo surgery as a result of the injury sustained on Saturday night, joined his teammates on the bench, not to play but to advise them. His input and impact was immediately felt as his team manfully set about whittling away the lead to be down by just five at the end of the third 57-62.
With all to play for in the final segment, North rallied well and regained the lead 65-64. From then on its was a tenacious 'dog-eat-dog' struggle by both teams for any little edge they could find with the game tied and changing hands with increasing regularity.
With just over two minutes remaining and the crowd on their feet Wortmanville took the lead albeit for a brief moment as well as for the final time in the game 80-79.
North Ruimveldt regained the initiative and the lead 81-80 with 1:56 remaining. With the score 84-82 in favour of North and 1:15 on the game clock Jermaine Warde of Wortmanville stepped to the free throw line for two free throws to tie the game but he only sank one. On the next `play' he was fouled out with 56.5 remaining and North in the lead by one 84-83, still anybody's game.
Aubrey Young who had been fouled by Warde missed both free throws to add more drama to the evening's proceedings, but a `tip-in' by MVP, #7 Andrew Ifill saw his team edged ahead 86-83. He too was fouled out with 42.8 seconds to go as Wortmanville converted one of two free throws with 18.0 seconds left for a one-point game.
With 3.6 left on the game clock stand in captain Rondal Murphy was fouled and he converted one of two free throws as North held on to win in the remaining time 87-85. MVP Ifill led the way for his team with 18 points, six rebounds and one blocked shot, Aubrey Young also had 18 points while Damian Liverpool `stepped up' and poured in 12 points while pulling down 10 rebounds.
For Wortmanville `double awardee' Royston Siland emerged from the `shadows' as he had a good all round busy game scoring a game high 24 points, pulled down eight rebounds, dished out four assists, effected four steals and had one blocked shot. Naylon Loncke supported with 19 points and eight rebounds and Jermaine Warde 15 points, six rebounds and three steals.
At the awards ceremony, which immediately followed the game, Royston Siland from Wortmanville took home two awards, the best defensive player and the player with the most blocked shots. Teammate Naylon Loncke won the award for effecting the most steals (27) and shared the award for the most three pointers (10) with Darcelle Harris of North Ruimveldt. Harris received a second trophy that of the player with the most assists (31).
The members of the winning North Ruimveldt were Andrew Ifill, Lugard Mohan, Aubrey Young, Rondal Murphy, Quacy Heywood, Yusuf Edghill, Damian Liverpool, Kelvin Simon and Darcelle Harris.
In the exhibition game a Central Leo team defeated a Guyana Red Cross combination by 11 points 77-66 after they were behind by six at half time 31-37. Leading the way for the Leo's was Rawle Conway with a game-high 37 points while Andrew Sam had eight. For the Red Cross, Pablo Cupidore had 20 points and Devon Lewis 13.