The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

LOCAL basketball in New Providence is expected to be in full swing this weekend as the New Providence Basketball Association is slated to tip off its 2013-14 campaign, joining the New Providence Women’s Basketball Association which opened last weekend.

The NPBA season is scheduled to get started 7:30pm Saturday, November 9 at the AF Adderley Gymnasium.

Executives have chosen to dedicate the season to honour iconic coach and certified instuctor Charles “Chuck” Mackey.

The league will host an opening ceremony which will include the presentation of awards and the championship ring ceremony for the 2012-13 winners.

League MVP Lenny Oscar of the Double L Cleaners was league scoring champion and finished with a 33.3 point per game average.

Adorn Charlow of the Premium Food Rockets was the league leader on the boards at 15.1 rebounds per game while Adrian Miller of the Giants and Freddy Lightbourne of the RBPF Crimestoppers shared the assist title at 6.1 per game.

Moses Johnson of the Woodside Petroleum Conquerors was the Coach of the Year.

The Mail Boat Cybots will look to repeat as NPBA champions after closing out the Commonwealth Bank Giants in a three-game series win.

The series came down to a thrilling finish when Brian “Tucker” Bain made a pair of free throws down the stretch to complete the comeback from a 23-point deficit.

In was yet another chapter in the saga between the two teams as they also met in the 2011-12 championship series when the Cybots could not close out the Giants despite a 2-1 series lead and the Giants stormed back to win their third straight title.

The rivalry will continue as the two teams are slated to square off in the feature game of opening night at 8:30pm.

The following teams are registered for the season:

Vince Ferguson Division - Mail Boat Cybots, Real Deal Shockers, COB Caribs, Pros and the Pyramid Food Rockets.

The John Archer Division includes the Commonwealth Bank Giants, RBDF Mariners, Y-Cares Wreckers, PJ Conquerors Stingers and Double L Cleaners.

The league entered a new venture this season with the hosting of its inaugural preseason tournament.

In the title game, PJ Conquerors Stingers defeated the Commonwealth Bank Giants 60-41 to win the preseason championship.

“We expect this to be an incredible season,” NPBA president Kevin Smith said.“We have some major things in place we plan to implement in terms of marketing, exposure and promotions to take the league to another level from an administration standpoint. So we are excited about it and the public should be as well.”

“We have to improve our product on the floor. The Bahamian public is very basketball savvy so they demand a higher standard of product on the floor, so that is where everything begins. We have to continue to improve the way we present the league and the standard of play night in and night out. Based on what I have seen from a lot of the guys, they are hungry.

“It has been a very active summer for many players in various tournaments and in the Summer of Thunder. The level of play has been intense and last year many young players experienced the playoffs for the first time so they got a taste of what winning is like so we expect even more out of them this season.”

The NPWBA opened its season last week Saturday (November 2) at the DW Davis Gymnasium.

The defending champion Bommer G Operators topped the Career Builders Cheetahs 70-56 in the opening game, a rematch of last year’s championship series. Kaylicia Laing and Chrishanda Rahming paced the Operators with 14 points each while Sasha Rolle added 11. The Operators won last year in a full five-game series.

In the second matchup, the Super Value Cybot Queens defeated the Johnson’s Lady Truckers, 56-45. Tracey Lewis scored a game high 18 points while Marvia Dean added 11. Valerie Nesbitt led the Lady Truckers with 12 points.

The league continued Tuesday night when the COB Caribs won by default over the Defence Force Waves and the Operators moved to 2-0 with a win over Dee Saints, 67-46.

Sasha Ferguson and Malesha Peterson each finished with 13 points to lead the Operators. Suzette McKenzie added 11 points, while Vernisha Moss chipped in with 10. Marceline St Jean led the Saints with 12 points.