Suriname's defence stifles Aruba 80-68

Suriname captured their second win of the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) male under-16 championship with an 80-68 win on Tuesday evening at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in Georgetown, Guyana. The Dutch boys raised their defence to another level to stifle Aruba's offence in the final period to just 15 points after the latter country made a splendid third quarter run to lead by one point at the end of the penultimate stanza in the game. Andrew Blijd led the way for Suriname with 21 points while Serdinio Rozewijn contributed a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Farai Stoffels also had 15 points and 10 boards. Leonardo Winterdal dropped a game-high 25 points, hitting 5/9 from the three-point line to lead the Aruba squad. Jahleel Heemstadt (2) also had 18 points while Giomar Madura scored 12 points in the loss. Meanwhile, the first quarter was highly competitive with Suriname attacking the paint with every opportunity they had, looking dangerous of running away with the game with a quick 12-6 run. However, a four-point play by Winterdal tied the game at 20 before number 12 released a dagger from 10 feet beyond the arc to beat the buzzer and end the first quarter with Aruba up 24-22. Suriname in the second quarter, literally turned the game into a track meet, not giving Aruba a chance to rest, retaking the lead in the process and expanding it to a comfortable 43-32 halftime lead. The third period was all Aruba's as they used a 3-2 zone defence to quell Suriname's hot shooting by holding the Dutch-speaking nation to just nine points in the quarter while hitting four of their six triples to get back in the game and go into the fourth with a 53-52 lead. Suriname simply turned on the burners in the fourth to pull away from Aruba in the end.
Courtesy of: guyana2016.com