Newly crowned national 3x3 basketball boys' champion, Maloney Pacers, will take their talents to the next level when the local team tackles the best the region has to offer at next year's FIBA/Antilles 3x3 International Youth Championships, set for St Lucia in February.
Pacers emerged winner of the ten-team competition in the inaugural National Under-17 3x3 Championships hosted by the National Basketball Federation of T&T's (NBFTT) on Saturday. The action had initially started at the Nelson Mandela Park in St Clair but shifted to the Jean Pierre Complex in Mucurapo at the semi-final stage due to inclement weather.
In the girls' contest, Entreprise Golden Stars picked up the title. However, Golden Stars will have a longer wait to see if they will get to compete in the regional Championships as they are currently on standby. This was confirmed by coordinator the competition Kwame Cowie.
"The girls are still awaiting confirmation of participation as they are listed on standby," said Cowie. "The competition is carded to take place in February in St Lucia. Once the other countries complete their respective competitions only then we will know who are the final teams to compete."
The group stages of both finals consisted of the first and second place winners from the Tobago, North, South, Central and East conferences, where applicable as the girls teams did not have representatives in each division.
Maloney Pacers' Ahkeel and Ahkeem Boyd, who were both members of the national Under-19 team, again performed at the highest level and led their team to a narrow 21-20 victory over Stories of Success (SOS) Peace before the twin brothers linked up again to help their team top SOS Respect in the final, 21-5, to earn the boys' title.
Ahkeel was the best offensively on the day, notching 40 points. Johann Ferdinand of SOS Peace was second with 26 while both Maloney Gardens Recruits' Joshua Sheppard and Kalique Robertson Forrester of SOS Respect, each netted 21.
In the girls' finale, Golden Stars met tough competition in Star Seekers from Tobago in a neck-and-neck encounter, which resulted in the scores remaining tied at six at the end of regulation time. According to rules in this format of the game, the first team to score two points in overtime wins the affair. It was Nileen Ramdial stepping up to net the winner for Golden Stars, connecting a shot from behind the arc, to claim the victory.
Star Seekers' Demisha Henry was the leading scorers among the girls with 17 while Shania Emmanuel of Golden Stars was a close second, connecting 16. Third best was Mercedes Alexander of Windjammers with nine.
If either of the national champions is unable to travel, the second place team will be promoted to represent T&T.
Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs, Darryl Smith was on hand to present awards at the prize giving ceremony after addressing the youngsters.
Pure Energy's Christopher Maharaj and Shanice Emmanuel of Golden Stars proved to be the best long-range shooter, winning their respective three-point contest.
Final placings
Boys
1 Maloney Pacers
2 Stories of Success Respect
3 Maloney Gardens Recruits
Girls
1 Golden Stars
2 Star Seekers
3 Windjammers