MONTEGO BAY, St James — Montego Bay Cricket Club Knights shook off a pesky but ultimately overmatched Montego Bay Boys Club Warriors to complete a 2-0 series win in the best-of-three finals of the INSPORTS/Hy-Lite Western Basketball Association Men’s Championships after winning 75-59 at the Cricket Club Courts on Saturday night.

After a hard-fought 65-60 margin a week before, Knights took their time to settle, trailing Warriors after the first quarter but once they got into a rhythm, Warriors who were without two of their best players, were always trying to catch up.

Knights, who will now play in the upcoming JABBA National Basketball League-West, established a double-digit lead after a 12-0 run to start the third quarter, extending it to 22 points (51-29) with four-and-half minutes to go in the period.

With Sheldon Lyle, who had led them to upset wins in the quarter-finals and semi-finals and Andrew Parkinson both suspended for the rest of the season, Fabian Gifford took on the leadership role for Warriors and saw them lead 16-14 after the first quarter, but Knights who were also without Omroy Kerr, established themselves in the second-quarter and took the lead for good mid-way the quarter and was up 39-28 at the half.

Warriors came out cold in the third quarter and Knights punished them with a 12-0-run as Warriors failed to score a point in the first six minutes of the quarter, effectively ending the game as a contest with 14 minutes still to go.

Despite a brief flurry in the fourth quarter after Knights had relaxed the pressure, Warriors were out of the running to extend the series to a third game as Knights led 67-55 with just under three minutes to go in the game.

Jamoi Richards was the game-high scorer with 21 points, Lemar Mitchell scored 14 points, Danile Malcolm had two three-pointers in his 10 points, while Chad Beckford scored nine points and had eight rebounds.

Gifford was the top scorer for Warriors with 18 points, while Kirkland Sterling scored 14 points and had 13 rebounds.

In the third place play-offs, Trelawny Tornadoes beat Sav J-Hawks 73-59 as Antoneil Watson top scored with 41 points and had 15 rebounds, Jason Francis scored 13 points while Diego Hines scored 10 points and had eight rebounds.

Curtis Anderson was the top scorer for Hawks with 17 points, Chescardo Grant scored 16 points while Rushane Drummond had 12 points.