PHILIPSBURG--St. Maarten National Basketball Association’s (SXMNBA) ongoing Basketball Business League has driven into red-hot form at the L.B. Scott Sports Auditorium.
A total of six local business/service entities are participating in the tourney. They are TELEM, GEBE, Windward Islands Bank (WIB), Scotiabank, Port St. Maarten and the Fire Department. The format of the tourney is round robin.
So far, after two rounds of matches (Wednesday and Thursday night), the score shows the Fire Department at 2-0, WIB at 1-1, Scotiabank at 1-1, GEBE at 1-1, TelEm at 1-1 and Port St. Maarten at 0-2.
There has been some individual brilliance from particular players of each team. For the Fire Department, it has been Ashley Marlin, Kito Rhomas and Frantz Plaisir. For WIB, Daniel Philips and Jahmal Constance have been leading the scoring sheet.
TelEm has gotten most of its points through Alain Duzant and Alberto Helliger. For GEBE, the main scorers have been Evemar Wilson, Jurien Blijden and Leorgino Kirnon.
Scotia Bank’s leading scorers have been Jeffrey Tousain, Earlnil Kofi Hamilton and Jamal Ireland.
For Port St. Maarten, Romeo Gumbs, Titus Maynard and Shawn Wilkinson have done the bulk of the scoring.
On opening night Wednesday, Game 1 saw Windward Islands Bank defeat Telem 50 to 40: Top Scorers for the Windward Island Bank were Daniel Philips with 18 points and Jahmal Constance adding 12 points, Top Scorers for Telem were Alain Duzant with 16 points and Alberto Helliger adding 12 points.
In Game 2 Fire Department defeated GEBE 45 to 37. Top Scorers for the Cay Hill Fire Department were Kito Thomas with 14 points and Ashley Marlin adding 12 points, Top Scorers for GEBE were Evemar Wilson with 11 points and Jurien Blijden adding 10 points.
In Game 3 Scotia Bank edged Port SxM 58 to 50: Top Scorers for Scotia Bank were Jeffrey Tousain with 18 points and Earlnil Kofi Hamilton adding 11 points, Top Scorers for Port SXM were Romeo Gumbs and Titus Maynard both with scoring 9 points apiece.
On the second night there were again three games on tap. In Game 1 GEBE crushed Port SXM (0-2) 54 to 38: Top Scorers for GEBE were Evemar Wilson with 15 points and Leorgino Kirnon adding 10 points, Top Scorers for Port SXM were Shawn Wilkinson with 10 points and Kevin Lake adding 8 points.
In Game 2 Fire Department topped Windward Islands Bank in a double overtime thriller 80 to 79: Top Scorers for the Cay Hill Fire Department were Ashley Marlin with 24 points and Frantz Plaisir adding 18 points, Top Scorers for the Windward Islands Bank were Daniel Philips with 27 points and Jamal Constance adding 21 points.
In Game 3 Telem whipped Scotia Bank 62 to 59: Top Scorers for Telem were Alain Duzant with 27 points and Alberto Helliger adding 15 points, Top Scorers for Scotia Bank were Jamal Ireland with 27 points and Earlnil Kofi Hamilton adding 19 points.
The tourney continues today with six matches. From 1:00pm, Port St. Maarten will take on WIB; at 2:00pm, Scotiabank will do battle against GEBE, at 3:00pm, the Fire Department will play against TelEm; at 4:00pm, WIB and GEBE will match skills, at 5:00pm Scotiabank will play the Fire Department and the last game of the night will be played between Port St. Maarten and TelEm from 6:00pm.
The two semi-finals and grand final will be played on Sunday. The final is scheduled to tip-off at 5:00pm.
