NBL, powered by FLOW GAME WEEK 2 PREVIEWS After
the Southern Conference of the National Basketball
League powered by Flow tipped-off at the National
Stadium courts last weekend with much excitement and
fanfare, the East, West and Central conferences will get
their first taste of NBL action when the league gets
into full gear this Saturday.
The new NBL which has been expanded to include 15 other
teams, five each from east, west and central
conferences, will see Hoopers, Savlamar Hawks, Innercity
Avalanche, Granville Jaguar and Catherine Hall All Stars
competing in the west.
The eastern conference will include, Morant Bay, Buff
Bay Hawks, Portland Pistons, Pure Playaz and Yallahs.
While, Team AAAH, Victory, Spaulding Hippers, Nain More
Ups and Manchester Pythons will battle for honours in
the Central conference.
In western conference games this Saturday at the Mobay
Cricket Club, Hoopers oppose Avalanche at 6:00 pm, and
Savlamar Hawks play Jaguars at 8:00 pm.
In the east, Morant Bay entertain Pure Playaz at Bath
starting at 3:30 pm., While in the central conference,
Spaulding Hippers meet Nain More Ups at 1:30 pm while
Team AAAH face victory at 3:30p.m. at Belair.
Opening western conference match, Hoopers and Avalanche
are evenly matched with both teams riding high from last
season.
The Hoopers are a former winner of the Western
Basketball Association (WBA) Men's Basketball
Championship League, while the Avalanche took the recent
NBL West pre-season tournament.
The Avalanche hopes for a win will rest on Cleon
Morgan, Oneil Clarke, and Dane Morris,
while, Hoopers' coach Douglas Reid said they will
be relying on a total team effort.
In the other game, ousted WBA champion, Sav Hawks will
start favourites against Granville Jaguars. The Jaguars,
who lost out in both the JPSco League and the WBA league
semi-finals this season, will be looking towards
Leroy Lawrence, Dwayne and Dave Blake
to carry them through.
Over in the Eastern conference, Playaz start favourites.
The Playaz will rely on Kirk Anderson, Guy
Wilson, Damion Campbell, and Adrian
Lattibeaudiere, while, Dwayne Anderson,
Norman Dean, Syan Johnson and Ian
Silbourne will carry Morant Bay's hopes.
Meanwhile, In the Central conference, former kingpins,
Team AAAH will look to return to their glory days, when
they go up against Victory.
Victory made it to the semi-finals of the JPSco
competition this season, but Coach Dillion Brown
said because of work commitment they could not produce
their best team for the match. However, he remains
cautious, because the Michael Stephenson-coached
Team AAAH are the standard bearers of the conference and
although they have fallen off in recent times, he
believes they are still a very dangerous side.
Victory will rely on Brown, Peter Shane,
Telston Salmon, Mark Allen and Ramon
Roberts to lead them to victory.
The other game, between Nain MoreUps and Spaulding
Hippers can go either way. Nain have a crop of talented
youngsters they hope can combine well with some
experience players to see them through to the playoffs.
They will call on Lennox Lewis, Craig Mulling,
Ricardo Brooks, Touray Turner, Samson
Crooks and Geramino Vaughn to lead them to
victory.
Manchester Pythons will get their campaign underway on
Sunday against Nain at Nain.
At the end of the preliminary round, the top team from
each of the rural conferences plus the top five
finishers in the South conference will contest the
playoffs.
There will be no Southern Conference matches this
weekend due to a PNP Conference at the National Arena.
