Cantonments Community basketball team won the maiden Community Dunks Under-18 Basketball Championship when they defeated their Ridge community team 52-44 in the finals at the El-Wak Sports Stadium in Accra on Friday.
The game was only two minutes when Ibrahim Mohammed shot Ridge Community into the lead when he threw a two-pointer but the champions fought back gamely to level up the scores. The game from then became a ding-dong affair until the last quarter when Gilbert Mensah who combined effectively with David Hayford, powered Cantonments to victory.
On their way to the finals, Cantonments edged out Kaneshie Community while Ridge Community eliminated Dansoman Community. Dansoman Community had earlier beating Kaneshie Community 31-29 to take the third place in the 13-week competition which attracted 10 communities in the Accra Metropolis.
The event, which is an initiative of Rite Multimedia, was sponsored by Coca-Cola Equatorial Africa and Indomie Instant Noodles. Mr Rashid Pelpuo, acting Minister of Youth and Sports who was the Special Guest of Honour said government was determined to ensure that lesser-known sports were developed.
He said plans were far advanced to bring basketball experts from Australia to help train Ghanaian basketball players and to help select a formidable team for the All African Games. Mr Yaw Sakyi, Chief Executive Officer of Rite Multimedia said the company would continue to organize the competition among the communities, which he said was aimed at whipping up enthusiasm of the game among the youth and people of the communities.