BALDON Todd and injured Kemar McLeish strutted their stuff for Majesty Gardens Legends to trip-up Tivoli Wizards, 64-59, in game one of the NBL Powered by Flow Southern Conference final Thursday night at the National Stadium Courts.

Todd took over the show for Majesty when McLeish twisted his left foot from a strong tackle by the 2.08m (6ft 10in) Andrew Whilby with just under six minutes in the second half.

Todd logged 24 points, four rebounds, and McLeish 21 points, six rebounds.

“Not the sort of composure that we would have wanted, but it was a good show by the players,” Majesty’s coach Marland Nattie said afterward.

Nattie, the immediate past president of the Jamaica Basketball Association, noted that he had worked on the players strengths and cohesiveness, which had been “lacking in previous seasons”.

Anthony Farquharson called the shots for the Wizards, scoring 21 points, and added eight rebounds, six assists, and five steals. Kirk Ferguson supported with 14 points, four rebounds, and four steals.

Tivoli’s coach Edward Marshall was not pleased.

“We missed a lot of free throws and really started out flat, but Majesty wanted it more and got what they wanted. My team didn’t play hard enough,” Marshall pointed out.

The first quarter ended 14-14 and Majesty edged ahead 29-28 at half time.

When McLeish was lifted off the court, Todd redoubled his efforts with eight points in the second quarter for Majesty to move up 46-37 before the end of the third quarter.

While McLeish returned in the third quarter and battled through the remainder of the game, Tivoli were never able to close the gap.

Game Two of the best-of-three final will be played on Monday at 8:00 pm after Urban Knights play St George’s Slayers in the third-place play-off at 6:00 pm.