Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

A LITTLE more than a year after taking up an academic/basketball scholarship at Florida Preparatory Academy in Port Charlotte, local talent, Ricardo Alliman will now look to take his high-flying act to National Association of Inter-collegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division Two team Cedarville University for their upcoming season.

The player, formerly of National Basketball League (NBL) team Blazing Panthers, is expected to add to an already talented Jamaican contingent at the college.

The team already features the likes of 6' 6" forward Christopher Walker, who joined the team in late December, and 6' 10", 210 pound centre Daniel Rose, who also joined the team last year.

The university will hope that at least one, or the combination of the three players, can fill the void left by Jamaican sensation, Mugabe Thomas.

Thomas, who represented the nation at both the Caribbean Basketball Championships and Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, is the only players in Cedarville history to be voted an NAIA All-American twice, but is now about to graduate, holding the distinction of the second player in the school's history with more than 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.

A number of Jamaican hoopsters have been continuing to, or are looking to, make their mark abroad and courtesy of recently concluded Star Search Basketball camp NBL players Andree Wilson (St. George's Slayers) and Damion Gardner (Urban Knights) are expected to leave the island shortly to take up full basketball scholarships at Southeastern Illinois College.