Suriname emerged victorious in the 2025 Nations Cup basketball tournament, defeating Guyana 79-61 in an exciting final last evening at the Ismay Van Wilgen Sports Hall in Paramaribo.\u00a0The tournament, which also featured Grenada, showcased the performances from some of the Region\u2019s best players.<\/p>\n
The much-anticipated showdown between Suriname and Guyana lived up to the hype, with the hosts setting the tone early.\u00a0After a rollercoaster opening quarter, Suriname held a six-point advantage (21-15).<\/p>\n
The second quarter continued to deliver high-energy basketball, highlighted by a jaw-dropping baseline dunk from Kimol Grimmond, who soared over two defenders to complete the play of the game.\u00a0Grimmond ended the half with eight points, sharing the spotlight with Harold Adams.<\/p>\n
Despite Guyana\u2019s spirited efforts, including a brief spark in the fourth quarter led by Captain Stanton Rose Jr., Suriname\u2019s balanced attack and home-court advantage proved too much.\u00a0They maintained their composure in a dogged third quarter and surged ahead in the final frame to secure an 18-point win and the Nations Cup title.<\/p>\n
Tournament-scoring leader Travis Belgrave once again led the way for Suriname with 11 points in the final, bringing his total to 47 points across three games. Grimmond delivered an entertaining 10 points, while Harold Adams chipped in with nine, \u00a0and\u00a0Zian\u00a0Gray and Stanton Rose Jr. each contributed eight points.<\/p>\n
For Guyana, Rose Jr. led the charge with a strong showing, including five unanswered baskets in the fourth quarter that briefly reignited their hopes.\u00a0Jermaine Slater and Belgrave rounded out the first-half top scorers for Guyana with six and five points, respectively.<\/p>\n
Suriname\u2019s road to the championship saw them defeating Guyana 84-56 on Friday and cruised past Grenada 78-48 on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Guyana, meanwhile, earned their spot in the finals with a commanding 79-50 victory over Grenada, powered by Belgrave\u2019s 20 points, Rose Jr.\u2019s 15, and Harold Adams\u2019 14.\u00a0Guyana\u2019s head coach Adrian Hooper praised his team\u2019s resilience and effort despite falling short in the finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying back-to-back games at this level is never easy, but the team showed heart and the will to win,\u201d Hooper said.\u00a0He also singled out Kimol Grimmond for his impressive debut, particularly his standout performance against Suriname last evening.\u00a0Looking ahead, Hooper stressed the need for more international engagements to help players gain experience and exposure.\u00a0\u201cThese tournaments are crucial for the development of our players. We\u2019ll continue to build and improve,\u201d he added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Suriname emerged victorious in the 2025 Nations Cup basketball tournament, defeating Guyana 79-61 in an exciting final last evening at the Ismay Van Wilgen Sports Hall in Paramaribo.\u00a0The tournament, which also featured Grenada, showcased the performances from some of the Region\u2019s best players. The much-anticipated showdown between Suriname and Guyana lived up to the hype,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[97,96,98],"class_list":["post-5057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-competitions","tag-grenada","tag-nations-cup","tag-suriname","article-list-item","animate"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/guyanabasketball.com\/gy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Team-GY-BBALL.jpg?fit=1600%2C972&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/guyanabasketball.com\/gy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/guyanabasketball.com\/gy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/guyanabasketball.com\/gy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyanabasketball.com\/gy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyanabasketball.com\/gy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/guyanabasketball.com\/gy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5059,"href":"https:\/\/guyanabasketball.com\/gy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5057\/revisions\/5059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyanabasketball.com\/gy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/guyanabasketball.com\/gy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyanabasketball.com\/gy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/guyanabasketball.com\/gy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}