Marabella’s Corey “Ako” Pascall, who was instrumental in the South squad’s runner-up finish at the recently-concluded Hoop of Life Community Basketball League, brought additional pride to his community when he was named the league’s top scorer with an impressive 211 points from 16 matches.
Pascall averaged 13.1 points per match.
However, it was La Romaine’s point guard Derrick Boxill, who produced the league’s best points average per match with 14. 9 from 14 fixtures. He scored 209 points with a high score of 40.
The top four teams (Laventille, Marabella, Caledonia and La Romaine), spotlighted six players who netted a combined total of 1,065 points between them, while showcasing some young talent in the likes of Caledonia forwards Wesley Vincent and Kyeon Joseph of Caledonia, La Romaine’s Kwasi Valentine, Shaquille Sylvester of Laventille and Kerron Lewis of Marabella.
The player who stood above the rest was Corey “Ako” Pascall—a player under six feet tall, who often worried his opponent’s defence en route to the final.
Pascall was in such form during the second phase of the competition that he had an all-time high of 66 points when Marabella took on Tobago’s Mason Hall at its home court, Bayshore, in January.
The match ended 145-35 in Marabella’s favour.
Another star was the untiring Steven “Lighter” Lewis, a favourite in the winning Laventille team, who showed his years of experience as a national forward. Lewis tallied 187 points to his credit as he celebrated with his winning team’s $1 million cheque in Marabella.
La Romaine’s Derrick Boxhill came in second on the leader board with 209 points, despite his team managing to take fourth place following its 73-60 defeat to Caledonia in front of their home crowd in the third place play-off.
Representing the teenagers in a big way were Caledonia’s talented pair Wesley Vincent and Kyeon Joseph, who topped many senior players for a tally of 154 and 149 points, respectively.
The community of Caledonia captured the lucrative third prize of TT$250,000 following its victory over La Romaine 73-60 in match two of the Big Four third place play-off. After losing the first match in La Romaine 89-77, Caledonia needed to win the second match of the series by 13 points at the Paradise Heights Basketball Court, Morvant.
And playing in front of its fans, host Caledonia got the perfect spark: six points from its captain Wilt Vincent and seven from Joseph as they jumped out to a 21-12 first quarter lead. In fact, Caledonia was so dominant that it took La Romaine 4:32 seconds before it managed its first basket.
Joseph top-scored in that encounter with 18 points and he was supported by the other youth, Vincent (Wesley), who netted 16 points.