kei­th clement

kei­th.clement@guardian.co.tt

Point-guard Car­ris­sa Ram­di­al closed out the Cen­trobas­ket Un­der-17 Women’s 2023 Qual­i­fiers, in Man­agua, Nicaragua, be­ing named to the All-Stars Team on Sun­day.

The pint-size play­er, who ear­li­er in the day helped T&T break their four-game los­ing streak with a Hon­duras 52-34 win in their fi­nal match of the six-team round-robin com­pe­ti­tion in which she scored 11 points, had five re­bounds, five as­sists, ten steals and made six turnovers.

The five play­ers of the tour­na­ment were three play­ers from Pana­ma who played un­beat­en in their five match­es pow­er for­wards Vi­vian Grenald and point guard Maria De Gra­cia and Lya Gon­za­les, Nicaragua’s pow­er for­ward Grisell Gullen and T&T’s point guard Ram­di­al.

In her five match­es, Ram­di­al, 15, one of six play­ers on the team from Club En­ter­prise which is coached by for­mer point-guard Er­ic Knight, scored a to­tal of 58 points, pulled down 19 re­bounds, dished out 18 as­sists, made 24 steals and com­mit­ted 28 turnovers. How­ev­er, T&T’s over­all best per­former was 15-year-old pow­er for­ward Amari­ah Clyne, who scored 64 points, se­cured 57 re­bounds, made ten as­sists, 23 steals and had 21 turnovers. An­oth­er play­er who used the stage to show off her de­vel­op­ing skills was 16-year-old for­ward Ju­lia George, who helped with 17 points, 37 re­bounds, 19 as­sists, 20 steals and 19 turnovers, while cen­tre Mari­ah, 16, con­tributed 10 points, 50 re­bounds, five as­sists, 15 steals and 13 turnovers and Ty War­wick, 16, fin­ished with 15 points, 21 re­bounds, three as­sists, four steals and 15 turnovers.

Members of the T&T Under-17 basketball Team from left, in front, are Melissa Pierre, Carrssa Ramdial, Mya-Leanna Raymond and Ty Warwick. The other team members are Julia George, Maria Charles, Amariah and Cayann Sellier.

T&T was the on­ly team at the tour­na­ment with less than a full 12 play­ers ros­ter. The team was re­duced to eight play­ers be­cause of fi­nan­cial chal­lenges. Apart from War­wick and Charles, the oth­er six play­ers Melis­sa Pierre, Mya-Lean­na Ray­mond, Cayann Sel­l­i­er, George, Clyne and Ram­di­al mem­bers of coach Knight’s club that is based in Ch­agua­nas.

T&T’s vic­to­ry over Hon­duras came on the back of loss­es to the host Nicaragua (50-44), Pana­ma (81-33), Cos­ta Ri­ca (52-33) and Guatemala 59-50 ear­li­er in the week.

The tour­na­ment’s top four teams Pana­ma, Cos­ta Ri­ca, Nicaragua and Guatemala have qual­i­fied for the FI­BA Cen­trobas­ket Un­der-17 Women’s Cham­pi­onship next year.

T&T fin­ished fifth with one win and Hon­duras fin­ished win­less in their five-match­es cam­paign.

In its fi­nal match on Sun­day against Hon­duras, T&T led 10-5 af­ter the first quar­ter, 17-15 at half­time, then 34-21 at the end of the third quar­ter be­fore outscor­ing the op­po­nents 18-13 in the fourth ses­sion to close out the com­fort­able vic­to­ry.

T&T al­so good a sol­id all­round per­for­mance from pow­er-for­ward Clyne, who scored 22 points and grabbed 14 re­bounds for a dou­ble-dou­ble.

She al­so had three as­sists, three steals and three turnovers, while guard Car­ris­sa Ram­di­al sup­port­ed with 11 points, five re­bounds, five as­sists, ten steals and six turnovers. There were oth­er con­tri­bu­tions from Mari­ah Charles, who added eight points and 11 re­bounds, Ju­lia George net­ted sev­en points, 13 re­bounds, eight as­sists, sev­en steals and just two turnovers, while guard Ty War­wick and Mya-Lean­na Ray­mond con­tributed two points each, and Cayann Sel­l­i­er did not fea­ture on the score­sheet.

T&T’s Mariah Charles challenges Daniela Alvardo of Guatemala for the jump-ball during the Centrobasket U-17 Women’s 2023 Qualifiers in Managua, Nicaragua.

Courtesy FIBA Americas

FI­NAL TEAM STAND­ING

# Team P W L Pts

1. Pana­ma 5 5 0 10

2. Cos­ta Ri­ca 5 4 1 9

3. Nicaragua 5 3 2 8

4. Guatemala 5 2 3 7

5. Trinidad and To­ba­go 5 1 4 6

6. Hon­duras 5 0 5 5