MONTEGO BAY, St James — Defending champions Hoopers avenged one of two first round losses on Saturday, beating Catherine Hall All-Stars by 16 points, 72-56, as the second round of the National Basketball League-West got underway with a double header at the Montego Bay Cricket Club.

Hoopers won their third straight game to join All-Stars at the top of the points table, both on eight points from five matches, as Inner-city Avalanche repeated their first round win over Railway Tigers, winning comfortably 49-34.

The win left both Avalanche and Tigers on identical statistics of seven points from five matches, tied for third place in the five-team league with Granville Jaguars, who were idle on five points from four games.

After losing 59-65 in the first round, Hoopers jumped out to a big early lead on Saturday and were up 15-2 in the first quarter and increased their lead to 20 points late in the first half.

The Douglas Reid-coached Hoopers were up 17-8 after the first quarter and 41-20 at the half-time break before Catherine Hall recovered to cut the deficit marginally to end the third quarter 43-57.

Neil Samuels had a game-high 20 points to lead Hoopers, Levar Rose scored 18 points and had seven steals and three assists, while Neville Clare scored 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists.

Kenton Fraser came off the bench to lead Catherine Hall with 15 points and five rebounds, Goyan Malcolm scored 10 points, seven steals and five assists, while player/coach Kurt Dorman also scored 10 points, 11 rebounds and five steals.

Earlier in the first game, after a close opening quarter that saw Railway Tigers up by one point, 12-11, Inner-city Avalanche then outscored them 38-22 over the next three periods, holding them to two points in the third, to cruise to an easy 15-point win, as Railway scored the lowest total of any team so far this season.

Dane Morris led Avalanche with 14 points and 10 rebounds, Mike Haughton had 12 points and eight rebounds, while Oneil Clarke scored eight points and had 12 rebounds.

Jason Blake was the bright spot for Tigers, who lost for the first time in three games, scoring 10 points, while Tammy Davis scored nine points and had 13 rebounds.