Saturday night on the Burnham Basketball Court saw the Ravens basketball club savouring the satisfying taste of revenge twice, after their third division squad swept Beepat Scorpions 2- 0 in the finals and the first division squad levelled the finals 1- 1 against Pacesetters.
On the penultimate night of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association’s ( GABA) Pepsi Playoff Street Series, the Ravens’ ball club reigned supreme.
Ravens’ third division squad crushed top- ranked third division contenders Scorpions 83- 56 to win their division with a perfect 4- 0 record in the knockout competition. Ravens had also brushed aside emerging third division campaigners Melanie Patriots in two games a week earlier.
Before being swept by Ravens, Scorpions had fin ished the GABA third division league with 7- 1 record, identical to Ravens.
Scorpions clutched the top seed since they had won the head to head encounter with Ravens earlier in the season, which ended up being Ravens’ only loss of the league.
Statisticians credited back- up point guard Antwain Benjamin with 19 points, while Marlon Haynes and Tyrone Hamid added 16 and 15 points respectively. But when Haynes and Benjamin were struggling and Hamid was confined to the bench because of foul trouble, Ravens’ newcomer Keon Hayles stepped up for his side.
Hayles, who came up big in Ravens’ overtime victory in game one penetrated the lane with efficiency and his athleticism was an asset on the defensive in helping to stifle Scorpions’ explosive scorer, Shelroy Thomas.
Thomas still managed to score 29 points, but was ice cold during the final min utes of the third and most of the fourth quarter. Thomas tried to draw the contact to get to the free throw line as he did in game one, but his teammates lacked the intensity that they possessed when they forced
Ravens into overtime on Wednesday night. With no help for Thomas on offence, Scorpions’ cause was lost.
Ravens led the first quar ter 18- 9 before Scorpions turned the tables on them and pulled ahead 31- 25 by halftime. At the end of the third, Ravens only led 45- 42 but it was evident that they had found the momentum that would carry them to the final whistle leading the Scorpions.
Ravens’ first division side managed to avoid a two- game sweep and evened things up with Courts Pacesetters with a ten point victory in game two. After losing their first game of the year to the Pacesetters in game one, Ravens forced a third game with a 73- 63 victory.
Realising that size in the low post was their de- ficiency in Game One, the Orangemen brought in reserves Jermaine Slaters and Rudy James. The Ravens were still without national forward Dwayne ‘ Brown Sugar’ Roberts and former junior national Seriah Clarke.
Nevertheless, the Orangemen rode a second half surge to brush the Pacesetters aside after trailing 15- 18 and 31- 33 af ter the first two quarters.
Versatile power forward Ryan Gullen led Ravens with 16 points, while speedy point guard Rodwell ‘ Kobe’ Fortune added 15.
Former Inter- Guiana Games ( IGG) Most Valuable Player ( MVP) Travis Burnett led the Pacesetters with 16 points while Nailon Loncke, who opened the night with a pair of three- pointers, added 13. Game three of the series was scheduled to have been played last night.
