JBA president hopeful for western teams in playoffs

June 2, 2011

Douglas Powell (left) of Granville Jaguars passes the ball before Catherine Hall's Marvin Powell can get to it in Tuesday's first game of the best-of-three Flow NBL-West finals at the Montego Bay Cricket Club. Catherine Hall won the game 60- 53 to take the lead. (Photo: Paul Reid)

PRESIDENT of the Jamaica Basketball Association Ajani Williams is hoping one of two western representatives from the Flow National Basketball League will pull off an upset and advance past the first round of the national play-offs which start this weekend.

On a recent stop in Montego Bay, Williams, who was recently re-elected, noted improvements in the quality of basketball in western Jamaica.

Granville Jaguars and Catherine Hall All-Stars who will represent western Jamaica in the 16-team play-offs, finally started the best of three finals on Tuesday after two postponements due to rain last week.

Catherine Hall, having won two of three games against Granville in the regular season, pulled off an upset against Jaguars with a 60-53 win in Game One at the Montego Bay Cricket Club with the second game set for last night at the same venue.

If necessary, Game Three would be played tomorrow night at the same venue.

On Tuesday, Goyan Malcolm and Kurt Dorman both scored 15 points to lead Catherine Hall, Marvin Powell scored 12 points while Jermaine Rerrie scored nine points and had 27 rebounds.

Leroy Lawrence was the top scorer for Granville with 15 points and 10 rebounds while Huwayne Blake scored 14 points and had 10 rebounds.

Source: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/westernnews/JBA-president-hopeful-for-western-teams-in-playoffs_8942568#ixzz1P7ttuf6N

Daley Earns 'Red Stripe Balla' Award

Tivoli Gardens' Keammar Daley, the 'Red Stripe Star Balla' for his stand-out
performance in the Flow Champions Cup 2010-2011. - Contributed

Tivoli Gardens' midfield wizard Keammar Daley, has been named 'Red Stripe Balla' of the season for his performances in the Flow Champions Cup national knockout championship.

Daley pulled the strings for a Tivoli team that went on to lift the League and Cup double, following a 3-0 thrashing of St Georges Sports Club in the knockout final, including a stunning 25-yard free-kick goal to get things going.

Although the player was not on hand to collect his award, as he is currently away on national duties with the Reggae Boyz preparing for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, Tivoli's manager, Brian Rose, believes the midfielder, who was hampered by a hamstring injury for part of the season, fully deserves the accolades.

"For the last three games in that competition he was outstanding, so he received just reward," Rose said.

"It was good to take the double, it just shows that hard work pays off, for both him (Daley) and the team," he added.

It was a bitter-sweet loss of sorts for the Portland team, who were also relegated from the top flight, as their midfielder Romeo Parkes received the competition's MVP award, despite the second-place finish.

Parkes, who was also the team's leading scorer during the season with four goals, netted a brace for Georges as they went on to win 3-0 in their semi-final against Sandals Whitehouse.

leading goalscorer

Parkes also shared the leading goalscorer award with Michael Dixon of Monymusk, having both scored a total three goals in the knockout competition.

Daley, who was voted Flow Man of the Match on two occasions, received $300,000, while Parkes received $70,000.

The Flow Champions Cup 2010-11 season concluded with the awards ceremony at the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) on Monday. Among the highlights was a donation made to the Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE) programme by the title sponsors and event managers SportsMax, who committed $4,000 for every goal scored within regulation time of the competition. A total of 59 goals were scored, which added up to a sum of $236,000 for YUTE.

Source: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110602/sports/sports91.html

Tivoli roll with the 'Flow' at KO awards

May 31, 2011

Flow’s brand manager Nasha Douglas (fourth right) hands over the Flow Champions Cup trophy and symbolic cheque to Tivoli Gardens captain Edsel Scott (centre) during the awards presentation at the JFF offices on Monday. JFF Competitions Committee chairman, Michael Ricketts (left); club president Edward Seaga (second left), team manager Brian Rose (right), and players of the team share the occasion. (Photo: Lionel Rookwood)

NATIONAL and Tivoli Gardens midfielder Keammar Daley was named 'Star Baller' of the 2011 Flow Champions Cup Knockout competition after the curtains came down on the season with the presentation of awards at the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) offices yesterday.

Daley, who scored and was also MVP of the final and currently away with the senior team in Brazil preparing for the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament, received $300,000 from co-sponsor Red Stripe for winning the award.


St George's SC's Romeo Parkes was voted the competition's MVP and was also the joint-topscorer with Monymusk's Michael Dixon on three goals each.

Parkes collected $70,000 for being the MVP award and $25,000 for the topscorer honours.
Tivoli walked away with the $1 million winning purse, while St George's took home $400,000 for finishing in the runner-up spot.

Tivoli coach Glendon 'Admiral' Bailey was named Coach of the Year.
Meanwhile, a special cheque presentation for $236,000 was made to the Youth Upliftment Through Employment charity.

Flow's brand manager, Nasha Douglas said her company was proud to be associated with the event and is looking to continue its title sponsorship at least through to 2012.

"We thank you all for a wonderful three years and for helping to create in my mind the best knockout football championship on the island," she said.

"I believe as we continue along this journey we will continue to play a significant role in helping to facilitate a renaissance in Jamaican football," Douglas added.

Chairman of the Premier League Clubs Association and the Professional Football Association of Jamaica, Edward Seaga, noted that he was somewhat disappointed that the top-brass of the various sponsoring company were not in attendance at yesterday's function.

"Flow came on last year as the chief sponsor for the competition and demonstrated that they could handle it... and this year they repeated with better funding and once again demonstrated the interest they had in this all-island knockout," he said.

"But when you're building a brand, you must put the top shoe forward and I thought we would have seen the top people from Flow and SportsMax," Seaga argued.

He saved special congratulation for champions Tivoli, of which he is club president.

"The Tivoli team has been enormously successful this year and not only in football, but in basketball and netball," he said, referring to their 'B' League netball and South Conference basketball titles in recent weeks.
"My 'obeah man' has taken us through the league, knockout, basketball and netball and we are putting ourselves in a position to win the national basketball title in the next few weeks," he joked.

JFF Competition's Committee chairman, Michael Ricketts, was also full of praise for the West Kingston community for the way they have rebounded on the field of sports following the military incursion into the community last May.

"And that is why I say congratulations, not only to the club, but to the community as well as this is a part of their therapy for what the community has gone through," he said.


Source:  http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sports/Tivoli-roll-with-the--Flow--at-KO-awards_8926933#ixzz1OUOGBFeM

Wizards celebrate win over Legends

May 31, 2011

This 2009 file photo shows Tivoli Gardens Wizards' Omar Barnes (centre) dousing a member of their management team with champagne, as they celebrated their 85-72 victory over Majesty Gardens. The scenes were no different when the Wizards again beat Majesty in Game Two of the finals, to close out the series on Saturday night.

Members of the Tivoli Wizards basketball team are celebrating their victory over Majesty Legends, following their victory in Game Two of the Flow National Basketball League Southern Conference Championship final, on Saturday night at the National Stadium courts.

The Wizards defeated the Legends 67-62 to take the best-of-three series 2-0, securing their third consecutive hold on the title.

"We are very happy for this victory because we had to play really hard to achieve it," said Omar Barnes, a senior member of the Wizards team.

"We really wanted to ensure that we retain the title because this will be a big morale boost for us going into the all-island play-off competition," Barnes added.

Andrew Whilby, another senior member of the Wizards' team, was also very happy with his side's victory.

"We are feeling very great to know that we have won this title again," said Whilby.

"My team played really well to win it and so now we are just celebrating and enjoying ourselves," Whilby added.

The Wizards, who led 37-32 at half-time, romped to their victory courtesy of centre Whilby's team-high 16 points and seven rebounds.

The Wizards were outscored 17-15 by the Legends in the third quarter, but they hung on to hold a 52-49 lead at the end of the period.

Whilby received solid support from Barnes (15 points and four assists), Anthony Farquharson (14 points and eight rebounds) and Kirk Ferguson (12 points and eight rebounds).

"We are very happy to know that we have defended our title against one of the top teams in this competition," said Edward 'Ted' Marshall, coach of the Wizards.

"I think that this victory will help our confidence as we look forward to defending our all-island title," Marshall added.

National representative Kemar McLeish was the top scorer for the Legends with a game-high 19 points and eight rebounds. McLeish got good support from captain Baldon Todd (18) and Havando Dunn (12).

"We are very disappointed because we didn't execute our game plan the way we should have done. We allowed them to get too many offensive rebounds and that was one of our main downfalls in this series," said Todd.

"I also thought that we didn't capitalise on their mistakes because every time we cut the lead we allowed them to get back into the game," Todd added.

Source: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110531/sports/sports7.html

Tivoli Wizards Celebrate Win Over Legends

May 31, 2011

This 2009 file photo shows Tivoli Gardens Wizards' Omar Barnes (centre) dousing a member of their management team with champagne, as they celebrated their 85-72 victory over Majesty Gardens. The scenes were no different when the Wizards again beat Majesty in Game Two of the finals, to close out the series on Saturday night.

Members of the Tivoli Wizards basketball team are celebrating their victory over Majesty Legends, following their victory in Game Two of the Flow National Basketball League Southern Conference Championship final, on Saturday night at the National Stadium courts.

The Wizards defeated the Legends 67-62 to take the best-of-three series 2-0, securing their third consecutive hold on the title.

"We are very happy for this victory because we had to play really hard to achieve it," said Omar Barnes, a senior member of the Wizards team.

"We really wanted to ensure that we retain the title because this will be a big morale boost for us going into the all-island play-off competition," Barnes added.

Andrew Whilby, another senior member of the Wizards' team, was also very happy with his side's victory.

"We are feeling very great to know that we have won this title again," said Whilby.

"My team played really well to win it and so now we are just celebrating and enjoying ourselves," Whilby added.

The Wizards, who led 37-32 at half-time, romped to their victory courtesy of centre Whilby's team-high 16 points and seven rebounds.

The Wizards were outscored 17-15 by the Legends in the third quarter, but they hung on to hold a 52-49 lead at the end of the period.

Whilby received solid support from Barnes (15 points and four assists), Anthony Farquharson (14 points and eight rebounds) and Kirk Ferguson (12 points and eight rebounds).

"We are very happy to know that we have defended our title against one of the top teams in this competition," said Edward 'Ted' Marshall, coach of the Wizards.

"I think that this victory will help our confidence as we look forward to defending our all-island title," Marshall added.

National representative Kemar McLeish was the top scorer for the Legends with a game-high 19 points and eight rebounds. McLeish got good support from captain Baldon Todd (18) and Havando Dunn (12).

"We are very disappointed because we didn't execute our game plan the way we should have done. We allowed them to get too many offensive rebounds and that was one of our main downfalls in this series," said Todd.

"I also thought that we didn't capitalise on their mistakes because every time we cut the lead we allowed them to get back into the game," Todd added.