The Western Area Basketball Association has started its inter-club basketball competition at the National Stadium in Freetown.
Ten teams are taking part in the competition in a round robin. The teams include YSC, Cannon Royals, Central Phynix, Lumely Dreams, Forceans, Dinka ‘B’Ashonix, Freetown Lakers, YMCA and Bel-Air.
In the opening match, YSC defeated YMCA by 49 points to 36 points after a well exciting match that saw both teams fighting for supremacy in every department of the game.
The game of basketball consists of 80 minutes, and is divided into four quarters and each quarter consists of 20 minutes before a five-minute break.
But in this particular match both teams agreed to play for 15 minutes in each quarter as the match did not start on time.
In the first quarter YSC scored 15 points while YMCA scored 10 points. In the second quarter it was 31;25, third quarter scored was 36;32 and in the final quarter YSC score 49 points and YMCA 36 points.
During the competition Robin Coker of YSC scored the highest point of 16 while Alfred Conteh of YMCA scored 11 points.
The head coach of YSC, Alie Hijazi who also doubles as the national coach, said during the match the first three quarters were stiff as YMCA were very determined to win the match.
He noted that they got control of the match in the last quarter where they were able to make vital points to carry the day.
He mentioned that winning the first game in the competition was very important for his boys and that they were going to keep the momentum as “we have eight more games to play before the best four teams will be playing play offs to find the winner”.
Coach Hijazi also noted that they had won the competition five out of the seven times it had been organized. “This is a sign that YSC is a team to reckon with in basketball,” he noted.
He said for the past 18 months they were not playing any competitions but was impressed with the team’s performance even though it was not their first team as most of the first team players were suspended.
Coach Hijazi noted that during the competition more young talents would be discovered, and appealed to companies and individual to come on board to sponsor the competition.
The competition would continue tomorrow between Ashonix and Bel-Air
ADVERTISEMENT