DEFENDING champions Tivoli Wizards clobbered St George’s Slayers, 84-59, to win their Flow/National Basketball League best of three quarter-finals 2-0 Monday night.

In another game, Selassie Legends outfought Urban Knights, 66-63, to extend their quarter-final duel to a third game tonight at 7:00 at the National Stadium Courts.

Kirk Ferguson notched 21 points, Anthony Farquharson added 15 points, 14 rebounds, and Andrew Whilby chipped in 13 points and 13 rebounds for Tivoli, who led the first quarter by one point (23-22), before accelerating away in the remaining quarters (47-29, 63-49, 84-59) to put the Slayers out of their misery.

Troy Constantine knocked in 20 points for Slayers, with Michael Jackson contributing 12.

Tivoli’s coach Edward Marshall said after the match: “We wanted to limit Slayers to at most 60 points. We’re now ready for JDF. We know that they will come out hard, but we will be coming out harder.”

Tivoli will play the Jamaica Defence Force in the best-of-three semi-finals, beginning tomorrow, while the other semi-finalists Majesty Legends will take on either Urban Knights or Selassie Gardens later this week.

Richardo Willis featured with 26 points, which included seven three-pointers, for Selassie Gardens to tie up the best of three quarter-finals 1-1 Monday night in the most thrilling match of the league so far.

As planned, the Knights opened the match firing on all cylinders to race 21-9 in the first quarter on the back of 11 unanswered points.

Steve Tucker and Khaleel Smith helped Selassie closed the gap in the second quarter which ended 35-29.

Three consecutive three-pointers by Willis early in the third quarter and another two later in this quarter ensured that the score tied up at 50-50, entering the last 10-minute countdown.

Jervis Hamilton and Javan Bailey pushed the former champions Knights to 56 before Smith and Willis, who was introduced late in the fourth quarter after picking up two fouls, rallied Selassie Gardens to 59-58 with under five minutes remaining.

Benefiting from late technical fouls, the Richard Pollock-coached Selassie Gardens held on to win the match by three points.

“Our backs were against the wall, we were facing elimination, so we had no choice but to fight and scratch. It was a dog fight all the way down… But my guys didn’t want to go away, not tonight,” explained Pollack.

Kevin Alexander, assistant coach of Urban Knights, blamed his team’s one on one play for the defeat.

“That’s not our system. Once we go for a one-on-one game, we’ll always lose,” added Alexander.

Alexander noted that Knights “horrible” free-throw shooting, “like 20 per cent from the free throw line” exacerbated his team’s

demise.