Made it! – Railway Tigers stay up in basketball league
MONTEGO BAY, St James – PROMOTED Railways Tigers pulled off a last-day upset win over finalist Catherine Hall Allstars to secure their place in next season’s Flow National Basketball League-west competition.
Needing a win to stay in the league after Inner-city Avalanche lost to Granville Jaguars, Railway prevailed over Catherine Hall 59-56 to finish with 16 points, one more than Avalanche who had the tie breaker if both had finished on the same points total.
Tigers were beating Catherine Hall for the second time this season after a 59-55 margin in the first round but then lost 65-44 in the second round.
They also mugged back to back wins to end the season after beating Avalanche 83-65 the previous round.
Avalanche were relegated to the Division One competition next year while Granville who topped the standings with 21 points and Catherine Hall who tied with outgoing champions Hoopers with 19 points but had the tie breaker with head to head wins, advanced to the finals that started last night.
On Saturday, Tigers led by four points after the first quarter 20-16 and by three at half-time 32-29 before a big third quarter that saw them increase their lead to 12 points 53-41.
With the introduction of Goyan Malcolm at the start of the fourth quarter, Catherine Hall came back but failed to close the gap.
Detroy Jewery was the top scorer for Tigers with 21 points and 10 rebounds, Tammy Davis scored 10 points with four rebounds and four steals, Jason Blake came off the bench to score 10 points, eight rebounds and 12 steals while Damion Williams scored eight points and had 15 rebounds.
Kurt Dorman led Catherine Hall with 14 points and 13 rebounds, Damion Henry had 14 points and Kenton Fraser scored 11 points.
Earlier in the day, Granville Jaguars put on an offensive display to blow away Avalanche 96-69, outscoring them 65-39 over the finals 23 minutes of the game after Avalanche pulled to within one point at 30-31 late in the first half.
Dave Black’s 32 points led Granville while Leroy Lawrence had 17 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots. Huwayne Blake scored a triple double 16 points, 13 rebounds and 10 steals.
Cleon Morgan scored 21 points and had nine rebounds for Avalanche, Haughton got 20 points and eight rebounds while Fabian Julian scored 10 points.