A trio of communities in the Rush Community Basketball Tournament begin with the alphabet “T”; Tudu, Teshie and Tema.
Last Sunday pitted two of the aforementioned teams against each other at the Accra Polytechnic Court.
The Tema Sharks beat the Tudu Warriors 51-46 in the last of three games played.
Needing to win stand any chance of annexing the title, Tema was forced into taking tough shots by the Tudu Warriors who impressed early with their mobility on defense.
They also kept things efficient on offense by making 7 out of 11 2 point attempts with majority of those coming in the paint. Tema on the other hand, mixed things up a bit on the same side with transition points, paint scoring and jumpers.
The final score at the end of the first quarter 17-15 for Tema , truly reflected proceedings.
After recess, the Warriors made big plays earlier on as Alhassan Haruna made a vital block to spark them to a 5-0 run before the Sharks called a timeout.
Free throws caused initial problems for Tema but settled into rhythm to go from making just one freethrow to making four straight. Sharks Point Guard Gameli Dzorbeti hit a crucial three pointer to tie the game before the game dissolved into a shouting match between fans of teams, benches and referees.
Proceedings began after almost 10 minutes at which time there was little momentum left in the game; the score was tied at 30.
Both teams went back to basic basketball protecting the paint and sticking to their men all the way.
McMartey Larweh nicknamed, ‘G Smooth’ had just 2 points in the game but was seen several times smiling after pressuring his opposing number to divert runs from the basket.
Manning the Sharks backcourt, Fosu-Agyeman and Bansah made two shots beyond the arc between them to give Tema the lead.
The last quarter in the game was unsurprisingly characterized by fouling and subsequent free throw shooting which unfortunately were missed on many attempts to leave the final quarter a slow-paced, low scoring one.
In the end, the Sharks did just enough to win 51-46 in the latter hours of 8th November.
