Edenvale Lions Basketball Academy takes third place at tournament
“It means a lot to Elba and its players to have placed where it did in the tournament,”
Basketball teams and academies flocked to Edenvale Sports Grounds for The Vale Tournament (TVT) hosted by Edenvale Lions Basketball Academy (Elba).
Held over the weekend of October 2 and 3 at Elba’s home court, coach and co-founder of the academy Edson Makavan described the tournament as a success.
The event, which was the first tournament of its magnitude hosted by Elba, saw the Soweto Panthers, ELBA, Mofolo Griffinz, Soldiers, Voltron, Randburg Rhinos, JWSA Jumpers Corinthians BWA and the Malvern Spartans compete.
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First place went to the Soweto Panthers who won gold and the first-place prize of R25 000, sponsored by Central BuildIt.
Randburg Rhinos secured silver and the prize money of R7 500, sponsored by Language Lady and Big Link Consulting.
The third place was claimed by Elba who was awarded bronze medals and the third-place prize money of R2 500, sponsored by Mardom Auto Electrical.
The most valuable player of the tournament was Christian Kabasele of the Soweto Panthers.
“The event was very successful even though it was held during the Covid-19 pandemic,” highlighted Makavan.
Results for the group games were as follows:
• Game one: Elba beat Mofolo Griffinz 34-24
• Game two: Randburg Rhinos won 58-24 vs Corinthians BWA
• Game three: Soweto Panthers beat Soldiers 54-30.
• Game four: Voltron won 45-30 vs JWSA Jumpers
• Game five: Elba won 52-51 vs Soweto Panthers
• Game six: Randburg Rhinos won 72-27 vs JWSA Jumpers
• Game seven: Mofolo Griffinz won 43-30 vs Soldiers
• Game eight: Voltron won 63-34 vs Corinthians BWA
• Game nine: Soldiers won 34-31 vs Elba
• Game 10: Voltron won 53-48 against Randburg Rhinos
• Game 11: Soweto Panthers won 41-36 vs Mofolo Griffinz
• Game 12: Corinthians BWA won 43-40 vs JWSA Jumpers
Results for the knock out games are as follows:
• Semi-final one: Randburg Rhinos beat Elba by 61-46
• Semi-final two: Soweto Panthers won 39-37 vs Voltron
• Third and fourth playoff: Elba won 26-25 against Voltron.
• Finals: Soweto Panthers beat Randburg Rhinos 52-40
Leading up to the tournament co-founder and coach of Elba, Byron Pinheiro, told the NEWS that the academy enjoyed an 11-game winning streak.
“The academy had played against some strong teams,” said Pinheiro.
He explained that this had boosted the players’ confidence and motivated them to excel in the TVT.
“It means a lot to Elba and its players to have placed where it did in the tournament,” said Makavan.
Pinheiro said when Elba took to the court, the academy’s players were playing for God, the players who were no longer with the academy, the late basketball player Johnny Domingues and most importantly the love of the sport.
Makavan pointed out that most of the teams that Elba competed against plays at a national level.
He said Elba also fielded some of the youngest players during the tournament.
“One of them, 16-year-old Thami Mtsweni drew a lot of attention from the senior players at the tournament. We expect big things from Mtsweni in the future.”
Pinheiro said although the wet weather on October 2 caused some disturbances to the tournament overall the event ran smoothly.
Looking the future Pinheiro said the academy has already started preparations for next year’s tournament.
“This year’s TVT was seven years in the making and next year we want to make it even better.”
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