Women's basketball team matured just in time

Head Coach of Guyana's national women's basketball team, Bernard Daniels, who is in his first season with the team, has said that the unit matured in the right time following major setbacks in their preparation phase for the Gillian Brazier Championships.

Daniels was speaking to Kaieteur Sport yesterday after his return to Guyana on Tuesday (March 20) with the team that won the Gillian Brazier title in Antigua Sunday night ahead of St. Kitts, Antigua Select and CPTSA Wings, aboard LIAT after Redjets route cancellation.

I can just say that the team was properly motivated. I think over the last week they matured just in time to compete. I was worried that we did not have enough time to prepare because there was some doubt about the tour, but the ladies matured, Daniels said.

Guyana played unbeaten in five games, and was the most dominant team in the competition after sweeping all the top prizes at the presentation. Guyana last won a female regional basketball title in 1998 at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation Championships.

Notwithstanding the inadequate preparation time, the team was faced with issues such as funding and team chemistry. It was the D.C Jammers, who came in at short notice, and provided financial assistance for the team while Daniels faced a real challenge in finding the right combination with most of the senior players unable, for varying reasons, to attend practice.

Guyana imported United States-based All-American point guard Shauntelle Nelson, who met the team in Antigua while senior players such as Nyota Peters and Nicola Jacobs, who were both the primary forces in the middle, also joined the team in the competition phase. Getting these players into an already established system could not have been easy.
But it happened, each night it was Peters, Jacobs, Natasha Alder or junior guard, Tamara Hunter, who came up big for the ladies with support from Nelson. Their guard, Nelson, was adjudged the MVP of the tournament for mostly managing Guyanas offense.

Asked how he was able to put it together during the competition in Antigua, Daniels said that the fundamental strategies such as unrelenting full-court defence and up-tempo offense surprised the opposition and the local team became better exponents in every game.

The other teams were not familiar with that kind of basketball. They were accustomed to whats a more settled game where the pace can be dictated, but we ran at them on both ends of the court and that wore them down. I know games are won in the third and fourth quarters so we kept with the pressure and took it away in the final quarter, the Coach informed.

He said that the team quickly adjusted to the right mindset and that made up for whatever lack in their fundamentals. Daniels indicated a willingness to build on this success but made it clear that it is not his call to ensure that systems are in place to move forward.

Female basketball needs a better structure. This success shows that if some attention is given to these women, they can produce results. This team could have far reaching positive consequences if we could just find a way to build on this, but it is not my call, Daniels noted.

He believes that the Government, Private Sector and the Guyana Amateur Basketball Federation should get behind womens basketball in more tangible ways. Guyana also competed at Gillians Brazier Basketball Shoot-Out in 2008 where the team placed second.

Courtesy of www.kaieteurnewsonline.com