Royalty Basketball Academy start DIAL tourney with back-to-back wins

Royalty Basketball Academy got their campaign in the Destiny Invitational Arima League (DIAL) basketball tourney off to a stunning start with victories in championship division play on January 24 and 30.

On the opening night of the tourney at the Princess Royal Basketball Court, Arima on January 24, Royalty impressed in pool B of the championship division when they defeated New Chapter Academy (NCA) Peace by a 61-56 margin in a tight, low-scoring contest.

Royalty held a 37-23 lead at the halftime break, and led 46-32 heading into the final quarter as both teams seemed to misfire in the third quarter. In the final quarter, NCA Peace outscored Royalty 24-15, but they just couldn't complete the comeback effort as they lost by a five-point margin.

Kushaiah King led Royalty with 12 points and three assists, with Jaden Roberts leading NCA Peace's charge with with 16 points, five assists and six rebounds.

On January 30, Royalty showed their win in on the opening night was no fluke as they defeated UTT by a 70-51 margin. Again, King was the main man for Royalty as he scored 19 points, to go along with four steals and three assists.

In this clash, Royalty led 36-26 at the half and took a slender 49-42 lead going into the final quarter. The Royalty defence made life difficult for their UTT counterparts in the final quarter, though, as they outscored them 21-9 in the period to get the facile 19-point win.

UTT had a much better showing in the first match of the tourney on January 24 when they defeated last year's championship division runners-up Spartans TT 86-78.

Mikhail Phillips had a solid all-round game for UTT with 23 points and six assists, with Shornell Pompey giving a battling performance for the Spartans with 18 points, six assists and five rebounds.

In pool A action on January 30, the Matthew Pierre Basketball Academy shot lights out in Arima when they hammered USC 126-58. The Matthew Pierre team led 60-31 at the half, and they didn't let up in the second half as they drained 40 points in the fourth quarter to cap their big win.

Leshaun Alfred was sensational for the Matthew Pierre team as he poured in 31 points, to go along with five blocks, five steals and nine rebounds.

It was the second win in as many matches for the Matthew Pierre team, as they also got a victory by default against Togetherness RL on January 26. NCA Love were also in winners' row in championship division play on January 26.

DIAL action was washed out on January 31.