Basketball: ‘Warm Up’ tournament |03 March 2020
Premium Cobras, Beau Vallon Buccaneers, Anse Etoile Stars winners
With local basketball still on lockdown pending investigations, the ‘Warm Up’ tournament organised to keep the sport alive went through its final stages over the weekend, deciding winners in each category.
Premium Cobras (men’s division one), Beau Vallon Buccaneers (men’s division two) and Anse Etoile Stars (women) are the winners of the tournament.
Organised by the Premium Cobras and Beau Vallon Heat clubs, the tournament was also the perfect opportunity to test the newly renovated Victoria Gymnasium, including the new surface and other facilities.
For the tournament, all registered first division teams were divided into two pools of three teams where they played against each other in their respective pools in a mini-league, before the winners of each pool played the runners-up of the other pool in the semifinal stage for a place in the final.
The second division teams were divided into four pools of three and the winners progressed to the last-four stage.
Fouls and free throws were administered per Fédération internationale de Basketball (Fiba) rules, while each team were allowed one timeout of a duration of one minute per half during the mini-league competition. As for the knockout stages, each team were allowed a total of three timeouts per match.
In the women’s competition only two teams registered and they played a best-of-three series.
In the men’s division one group, hosts Premium Cobras were the grand winners, defeating PLS Hawks 66-52 in the final on Sunday.
Cobras started their journey in pool A, alongside MBU Rockers and Mont Fleuri Dawgz, while Pool B featured co-hosts Beau Vallon Heat, Baya and PLS Hawks.
With two wins in as many matches, Premium Cobras topped the pool where they met Baya who were Pool B runners-up.
Cobras won the semifinal match 61-54 to book their final spot against PLS Hawks who finished top in their pool, before eliminating pool A runners-up Mont Fleuri Dawgz in the other semifinal.
In the men’s division two group, Beau Vallon Buccaneers who won pool A played against Beau Vallon Boys who were the winners of pool D in the semifinal, while the second semifinal featured pool B winners Anse Royale against Premium Cobras B who won pool C.
Buccaneers defeated Beau Vallon Boys 40-28, while Premium Cobras B eliminated Anse Royale 34-16.
In the final, Beau Vallon Buccaneers beat Premium Cobras B 47-44 to win the ‘Warm Up’ tournament trophy.
In the women’s category, only two teams, namely Anse Etoile Stars and Mont Fleuri, turned up for the tournament and the former emerged as champions after winning the best-of-three series 2-0.
In the first match, Anse Etoile Stars defeated Mont Fleuri 43-24 and then won the second encounter 42-28.
Premium Cobras club president Roy Collie has thanked National Sports Council chief executive Jean Larue for giving them the opportunity to use the renovated Victoria Gymnasium, NSC staff who worked during the tournament to ensure that all logistics were in place, teams who took part in the tournament, volunteers for helping out with officiating, Jeffrey Payet for sponsoring the trophies and other individuals who sponsored cash to all the winners and runners-up.
Roland Duval