Basketball head backs young national team ahead of LIBA tournament

President of the Antigua & Barbuda Basketball Association (ABBA), Daryll Matthew, is backing the national under-19s to dominate during the Leeward Islands Basketball Association (LIBA) tournament set to shoot off on Wednesday at the JSC basketball complex on Old Parham Road.
“It’s always tough playing in front of your home crowd but I think the advantage that these young men have is that quite a few of them play together on different teams in the association leagues and they have been practicing together for a while. So there is a certain level of camaraderie that already has been developed over the last couple of months,” he said.
“I think the x-factor in all of this is the coaching staff. You have Mahijah Davis who has a certain killer instinct and a never-say-die  kind of attitude, and I think that has rubbed off on the players.”
Antigua & Barbuda will face challenges from St. Kitts, Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla and St. Martin as they seek to better their third place finish from two years ago in Montserrat.
The championships opens with a triple-header on August 23 when Anguilla play St. Martin at 3 pm, St. Kitts face Montserrat at 6 pm and host Antigua take on Nevis at 8 pm.
Preparations for the hosting of the championships, Matthew said, have long been completed.
“Antigua & Barbuda can really look forward to an excellent tournament over the next couple of days. Hosting a tournament and organising the logistics for a tournament is never an easy thing but I have an excellent executive and everyone knows exactly what they are supposed to do,” the president said.
“With me being out of the country for 10 days didn’t stop the wagon from rolling on. We have our logistics committee, our games committee, hospitality committee and they have all been doing their jobs and so it’s all coming together perfectly,” he added.
The action continues Thursday when St Kitts
take on Nevis at 4 p.m., Montserrat face St Maarten at 6 p.m. and Antigua play Anguilla at 8 p.m.
Admission is $10 nightly.