Youth Basketball Guyana
UG’s guard Jonathan Pooran goes up for a lay-up against tough defence (photo: Treiston Joseph)
- Grove Cluster rains three pointers in Diamond Conference opener
By Treiston Joseph
The University of Guyana (UG) came from behind to scrape a 29-27 win over Guyana School of Agriculture (GSA) on Monday at the Mon Repos Primary School Hard Court, East Coast Demerara, in the Youth Basketball Guyana (YBG) Regional Conference sponsored by Digicel, Beharry Group of Companies and Banks DIH Limited.
Trailing the entire game, UG was heavily outrebounded by GSA, allowing an amazing amount of second chance points inside the paint.
UG’s guard Quincy Eaton goes up for a hard lay-up during the Country Conference opener (photo: Treiston Joseph)
With GSA having a comfortable eight-point advantage in the final four minutes, UG applied tenacious full court defensive pressure, which brought them level on 27 with 56s remaining on the clock.
UG’s guard Jonathan Pooran then made a hard baseline drive but missed as teammate centre Shaka Codrington collected a huge rebound and was fouled on the put back.
Missing both free throws GSA’s guard Emmanuel Archibald took the ball full court but was covered well defensively by Pooran who grabbed the board and made an outlet pass to guard Quincy Easton, who then finished with an easy lay-up to put UG up by two points.
That was UG’s first lead in the game with a little over 20s remaining.
GSA was then unable to convert with UG’s defensive pressure and lost the game after leading up until the final minute of the ball game.
Some of the action during the under-17 encounter between Plaisance Academy (white tops) and Bladen Hall (red tops) (photo: Treiston Joseph)
Quincy Eaton was the high point man for UG with nine points, while Pooran contributed six points along with big man Codrington dropping four points and six rebounds.
Archibald dropped a game-high 15 points to no avail, while his teammate Keilon Sullivan grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds in the loss.
In the under-17 game played earlier in the day, Plaisance Academy routed Bladen Hall Secondary 32-10 to open their account in the East Coast Conference (Country).
The game, which was fast paced with a lot of missed shots, steals and unforced turnovers, saw Terrence Daniels scoring a game-high 11 points to lead Plaisance to victory.
Omar Rose and Jamaal Garnett led Bladen Hall in the abysmal shooting effort with four points apiece.
Meanwhile, the East Bank or Diamond Conference tipped off with Grove Cluster dropping seven three-pointers to route Covent Garden, 35-12.
Shaka Codrington of UG (red and white) emphatically rejects a shot at the rim during UG’s comeback win on Monday (photo: Treiston Joseph)