2nd Caribbean Club Basketball Championship Tips Off

St.Kitts Ghetto Roots star player Byby Fyfeild

Daily Herald…MARIGOT (July 3, 2010) – Six of the best teams in the Caribbean are set to lock horns in the 2nd Annual Caribbean Basketball Invitational Tournament that tipped off on Thursday July 1-4 in the Omnisports Hall, Galis Bay.

The event is organised by the Saint-Martin Basketball Committee in partnership with the Collectivite of Saint-Martin. Participating teams include Golden Lions (Martinique), E.D.O (Guadeloupe), Horsford Ghetto Roots (St. Kitts and Nevis), Dolphins (Anguilla), defending champions Blazers (Dominica), and Killer Bees (St. Martin).

“The feedback we received on the tournament from participants last year was extremely positive,” noted St. Martin Basketball Committee (SMBC) President William Lewest. “They viewed it as a high standard tournament in terms of the quality of play, ambience, and organisation. With the special effects we made them feel they were NBA stars. Now those countries are singling our tournament as a top event to go to. That was very encouraging for us and we hope to make this one even better.”

Asked for his predictions given the high level of the teams, he said: “Guadeloupe wasn’t in the mix last year and they have a good team. So it’s going to be interesting. I’m still backing St. Martin but Dominica as defending champions have a strong team.

They proved it. I’ve heard a lot of the Ghetto Roots team from St.Kitts so I am expecting them to do much better than the St.Kitts Hitters who participated last year but did not do well.”

“All the games last year were down to the wire. The only blow out was to Anguilla but hopefully Anguilla has a better team this year. Personally I think we could see a final between Killer Bees and Guadeloupe. But again you can’t rule out Dominica and they have a huge fan base to drive them on. It’s going to be tough and very close.”

Lewest added next year he hopes to add Dominican Republic, Curacao, and Aruba to the line up. “We could use two venues, Dutch side and French side. I believe in involving both sides and also because it’s easier to get sponsorship on the Dutch side.”

The opening ceremony and presentation of teams took place Thursday at 6:00pm and the first matches saw Horsford Ghetto Roots against Golden Lions followed by Killer Bees versus Dolphins.

On Sunday the final matches start at 3:00pm with the first match to decide third place.