St. Kitts' Sugar Boys Ramal Browne goes on a fast break with

BVI All Stars' Caleb Liburd in tow

St. Kitts’ Sugar Boys fall short of sweep in V.I. tour

BY DEAN GREENAWAY

Jubilant and upbeat after beating the University of the Virgin Islands Bucks 69-63 on Saturday, St. Kitts Sugar Boys’ were unhappy and dejected on Sunday, after falling to a BVI All Stars squad 87-75, during a weekend mini basketball tournament at the Multipurpose Sports Complex. The Sugar Boys entered the game with the BVI All Stars that was held in conjunction with the BVI Big Ballers League, at 2-0, after beating the Hawkeyes 83-77 in Friday’s opening contest.

“We had the same amount of players as St. Kitts, but, their coaches don’t go as deep,” noted BVI All Stars coach Morris Wattley. “So our goal was to try and harass them as much as possible, play as many players as we can so that we could get them tired. In the end, it paid off.”

Marlon ‘Spier’ Meyers just missed a double double in leading the BVI All Stars with 22 points and nine rebounds. Ronnie ‘Gola’ Simmonds added 16 points, dished out seven assists and grabbed four rebounds. Caleb Liburd and Keyon Thomas tossed in another 11 points each. Marvin Davis had a game high 26 points and pulled 11 boards for the Sugar Boys. Halstead Isles and Carlos Monzac chipped in 14 points respectively. Rymal Brown added another 10.

Sugar Boys’ coach Wendell Pemberton, upset and unhappy, didn’t offer any comments following the game, but blamed the referees for his team’s loss, only saying, “We could have never won this game because of the referees. They were just horrible.”

By contrast, when the Sugar Boys outscored the UVI Bucks 40-29 in the second half and walked off with a 69-63 victory on Saturday after trailing 34-29 at halftime, Pemberton was animated. “We just had to compose ourselves in the third and fourth quarters and decided we would take it over, because we didn’t come up here for a loss,” he said. “In the first half, we weren’t going to the basket and the shots were not working so I told them ‘We have to take it to the basket and we have to bring it strong,’ and as you can see, Marvin (Davis) was taking it to the basket and he was getting and one, then going to the line and making them sometimes and that was the adjustment we needed.”

Marvin Davis led the Sugar Boys with 26 points and 10 boards. Carlos Monzac added 15 points and 11 rebounds. Kori Vialet narrowly missed a double double with 26 points and nine rebounds for the Bucks. He also had four steals and three assists. Andrew Christian added 17 points to go with seven rebounds and four assists.

Bucks coach Shawn Georges said it was a wakeup experience for his team to let them know the game isn’t over until the last buzzer sounds. “Turnovers, missed free throws, the list is kind of endless right now,” he said reflecting on things that went wrong. “I warned them at halftime, this team doesn’t fall asleep and they don’t give up. We gave up because we thought we had already won the game. They weren’t there in the second half as compared to the first half. Despite the turnovers, we had the energy and the momentum. We gave it away in the second half and we couldn’t come back from it. As we failed, St. Kitts got better.”

Vialet had 18 points in the Bucks’ 65-63 win over a BVI All Stars team on Friday. Andy

Ramirez finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds for the BVI.

Davis scored 40 points in the Sugar Boys’ 83-77 victory over Hawkeyes and Monzac added 17 and 11 rebounds. Cedric Smith was Hawkeyes leading scorer with 15. Avery Percival and Nathaniel Malone chipped in 14 each.

The Virgin Gorda Jr. Mystics cruised past Run It Red 86-58, after building a 45-26 halftime lead. Tristin Creque and Junior Fredericks were the Mystics leading scorers with 22 and 15 points respectively Duron Phillip led Run It Red with 18 points. He also had 15 rebounds and five blocks.

Dellon Mills had had a game high 32 points to lead All On Da Line past Millennium 78-58. Vere Brown had 14 rebounds to go with 10 points. Neville Smith was Millennium’s leading scorer with 17 points. Akiba Forde finished with 10.

With 24 points five rebounds and five steals, Claudio Ortega led Pure Playaz past Rejeks 93-52. Dennis Hogan chipped in 15 points and Algernon Augiste 12. Rhodni Skelton, Wayne Robinson and Enos Aaron all had eight points for Rejeks.

Kyle Scatliffe scored 20 of his season’s best 50 points in the second quarter in leading the Bulldogs to a 98-79 triumph over And One. Scatliffe also had 11 rebounds and five steals. Devon Liburd and Andre Stoutt added 15 and 14 points respectively. Brian Brumant carried And One with 19 points. Ray Victor and Carlisle France added 14 and 12 points a piece.