Basketball: Curtain-raiser tournaments - Favourites make intention known |28 March 2017

The favourites are making their intention known in the three ongoing Curtain-raiser competitions and it is very likely that spectators could be in for three mouth-watering finals.

This year, the Seychelles Basketball Federation has made a major change with the tournament, with teams in the men’s division one competing among themselves, while the division two teams will play among each other for their own title.

2016 division one league and SBF Cup champions Beau Vallon Heat will face rivals Premium Cobras in the semifinals in the men’s first division tournament after beating Praslin Warriors 86-51.

After eliminating newcomers Premium Cobras Youth 83-50 in the first round, Beau Vallon Heat faced Praslin Warriors on Saturday afternoon and Timmy Adam had the hot hands on the day with 44 points as the Heat won all four quarters 25-12, 17-14, 29-12 and 15-13 to advance to the semifinals.

Premium Cobras beat MBU Rockers 88-61 last week to make it to the semifinals.

Also on Saturday, PLS Hawks booked their ticket to the quarterfinals by beating a below-par Mont Fleuri Dawgz 111-41. Nyakinda Valentine scored 29 points as the Hawks won all quarters 15-8, 29-5, 35-14 and 32-14.

Anse Boileau-based Drifters, who beat Cascade Bullet 93-44 in their first game two weeks ago, are waiting for their semifinal opponents ‒ the winners of the quarterfinal match between PLS Hawks and Baya who won a bye straight into the quarterfinal.

In the men’s division two tournament, Beau Vallon Bucanneers and Bel Ombre Marlins will face off in the semifinals on March 30. The other semifinal will be between MBU Boyz and the winners of the Anse Etoile/Razors match.

Last Friday, MBU Boys won their quarterfinal match on a tight 73-71 score against Mont Fleuri Ballerz. MBU Boyz’ new acquisition Robert Léon scored 31 points to help his team advance into the semifinal. As for Anse Etoile, they won by walk-over against Razors as the latter had only three players present for the match.

In the other matches, Beau Vallon Bucanneers beat RC Dynamics 63-58 and Bel Ombre Marlins defeated PLS Suns 64-47. Both Marlins and Suns are new in the second division.

In a women’s match played on Saturday afternoon, Mont Fleuri beat archrivals HotShots 72-66 to book their place in the final.

Mont Fleuri won the first and third quarters 15-10 and 25-13 to secure the win although they lost the second and fourth quarters 10-15 and 22-28.

Mont Fleuri’s Lindy Morel scored 24 points in her team’s win.

In another match played the day before, B Challenge beat Anse Etoile Stars 60-35. Miantratsiory Rakotomandimby led B Challenge in scoring with 16 points.

The tournament continues today at 5.15pm at Victoria Gymnasium with a men’s second division quarterfinal match between AB Boys and Anse Etoile. Tomorrow at the same time and venue, PLS Hawks will meet Baya in a men’s division one quarterfinal game.

Meanwhile the Seychelles Basketball Federation has started a two-round school basketball league since March 14 for boys and girls under 15 and 18 years old. The schools taking part in the league are English River, Pointe Larue, Plaisance, Mont Fleuri, Belonie, Anse Royale, Praslin, Anse Boileau, Independent and International. The league will end in October.

P. J.