By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
Championships MVP, VG Bayside Blazers’ Raheem Carter, center, splits Tola defenders Asim Beazer, left and Romain Minott for 2 of his 23 points
A controversial call against Virgin Islands Elite on Saturday night, overshadowed Sunday’s VG Bayside Blazers blowout, 87-67 victory over Tola for the King of the Courts Caribbean Championships Basketball title at the Multipurpose Sports Complex, causing a delay in the start of the final, before police were called in.
Virgin Islands Elite’s Zion Jones, made the 4-point shot behind the line, in the closing moments of the semifinal game, giving them a 71-70 advantage over Tola, with 0.3 seconds left . The referee ruled the call was a 3-pointer, and it ended tied at 70-70, at the end of regulation, sending it into overtime. Tola prevailed 87-84, over the defending champs and advanced to face the VG Bayside Blazers, a 98-73 winner over Santo.
Virgin Islands Elite declined to play Sunday’s third place games against Santo, prompting organizers to have St. Kitts fill the spot instead.
“Regarding the incident in last night’s game with three seconds remaining on the clock,
There was a controversial call involving a shot that initially ruled a 3-pointer on the court. After the game, video footage surfaced showing that the shot was, in fact, a 4-pointer,” a King of the Courts tournament statement said. “Unfortunately, King of the Courts does not utilize video review for officiating decisions, and the tournament director does not intervene in referee rulings made during the game. We acknowledge that this was an unfortunate situation and extend our sincere apologies to Team USVI for the impact of this call. However, under the current rules, the decision made on the court stands and cannot be changed post-game.”
King of the Courts said that their referees have performed commendable throughout the tournament and have personally expressed their apologies to Team USVI for what transpired.
“We understand that teams invest significant time and resources to participate in this tournament, especially given the importance of the ($15,000) cash prize. Moving forward, we will explore potential solutions to better address situations like this and ensure continued fairness and transparency in the competition.”
Tournament organizer Steve Parillon said the key is now to fix the mistakes. “Next year, we’re going to implement video replay, we’re also going to implement different policies to help us, so that when we have controversial situations, there’s a way to resolve it, in a better manner,” he said. “
Prior to the start of the VG Bayside Blazers and Tola championship game, Virgin Islands Elite players sat on the scorer’s table in protest, delaying the start of the game by more than 30 minutes. Several persons sought mediation to no avail. The players moved after police arrived and the game was played without further incidents.
VG Bayside Blazers opened with a 10-0 run, extended it by a 32 points, 51-19 advantage with 1:52 left in the second half, en route to the 20-point 87-67 victory. Toyhn Trimble led the VG Bayside Blazers with 29 points. Raheem Carter finished with 23 points. Austin Oltime and Ronald Delp poured in 14 each, with Delp grabbing nine rebounds to go with four blocks. Antwain Johnson was Tola’s top scorer with 17 points. Kalu Ezikpe followed up with 13 and Wesley Alcegaire, 12.
“This victory is very good for the VG Bayside Blazers and we’re very happy,” coach Trevor “West” Stevens said. “We saw that the Tola team couldn’t shoot much, so we wanted to pack it in, force them to drive and always have a man to help. We got a good start, so after we got that start, we kept going and going. Our outside shooters performed tonight. This means a lot for Virgin Gorda.”
Tola Coach Jameel Haywood said that the better team won. “We had a delay before the game, a lot of confusion last night, and I felt that confusion before the game, took us out of rhythm, changed the momentum of the game a little bit, and we started off playing a different style than we played in our first four games,” Haywood said. “We started off slow. Didn’t get it out to the shooters, and in basketball, once a team gets on a run, they start getting their confidence and we’ve been playing downhill for the whole night.”
In the third place game, Antony Santos exploded for 39 points as Santo overpowered St. Kitts, 96-51. Alexander Garcia added 19, Fernando Osario, 14 and Christian Bae, dropped in another 11. Elton Walker was St. Kitts’ top scorer with 13. Braxton Benvenuti added another 11 to the tally.
Tournament awards: Most Points: Antony Santos, Santo, 81. Most Rebounds: Ronald Delph, VG Bayside Blazer, 27. Total Blocks: Ronald Delph, VG Bayside Blazers, 10. Total Assists: Tyohn Trimble, Virgin Gorda Bayside Blazers, 20. Total Steals: Sanger Rodriguez, Santo 6. Most 3-Pointers: Antony Santos, Santo, 12. Tournament MVP: Antony Santos, Santo. Championship MVP: Raheem Carter, VG Bayside Blazers.
