Latest update October 14th, 2024 12:59 AM
May 21, 2018 Sports
By Calvin Chapman in Suriname
On Saturday, the Ismay Van Wilgen Sports Hall in Paramaribo, Suriname was packed to capacity as fans flooded the venue to witness their National Senior Men’s Basketball team take on the mighty Bounty Colts; Guyana’s three-time consecutive National Club Champions, in the first of two friendly matches which the Surinamese won 70-60.
The Suriname Basketball Association (SBA) will be hosting and competing in next month’s Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships which will also serve as the FIBA America’s qualifying tournament, and in a bid to best prepare their players for the event which Guyana will also compete in, they invited Colts Basketball Club to test their skills.
Despite the loss for Colts which was received with much glee from the Surinamese fans, positives were harvested from the match up. This was the first time during their three-year dominance locally that the club has competed against a foreign team, and more importantly a National select squad with the best of the Dutchmen. Nevertheless, the Guyanese who had a bench of three compared to Suriname’s 10, played valiantly and showed why they are the local Champions.
At the end of the first quarter the visitors trailed by five points with the score 17-12 and that deficit was maintained up to the first half which finished 33-28 as the home team played with high intensity throughout. By the third quarter, Suriname were beginning to pull away with an eight point lead and the score stood at 55-47 but even though Colts were being pressed physically with their depleted bench, they maintained their competitiveness.
Suriname had led by 17 points during the final period of the game but Colts’ Skipper Shelroy Thomas (game high 23 points), and guard Stanton Rose (12 points) showed great courage to cut back the deficit to just one point. Shane Webster netted nine points, while being Colts’ rebound marshal and the lanky Donson Fraser (2) showed glimpses of how dominating he can be on the rebound as well. Domair Gladstone (6), Timothy Thompson (5) and Dellon LaRose (3) closed off the scoring for Colts.
Warramallo Gylan (15 points) and Fraser Saferio (10 points) led the points tally for Suriname who had 11 different players etching points to their name on the score sheet.
The visitors, who were cheered on by two lone but vocal supporters (Thomas’ wife and sister), showed that they had the ability to beat the Surinamese and the result of the second and final game which was played last night at the same Ismay Van Wilgen Sports Hall is expected to be more competitive for the Guyanese.
“I’m proud with the performance of our Guys, although it’s a loss; they played well and stayed in the game. We were caught off guard with the pace and physicality of the Suriname team but we stick with it and after being down by over 12 points at one period, Shelroy and the guys rallied and cut the lead down to one point. I know tomorrow’s (last night’s) game is going to be way closer. I’m positive that we can win but if we don’t it will be very, very close,” Colts Manager, Dayne Kendall posited after the game on Saturday night.
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