Hoopers, Jaguars in midseason final today
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Hoopers will meet Granville Jaguars in today’s mid-season final of the Flow National Basketball League-West at the Montego Bay Cricket Club, set to start at 7:00 pm.
The first-ever play-offs in the Flow NBL-West will follow the finals in all four three-on-three events that started yesterday.
Hoopers, who had finished the first two rounds of matches on 13 points, edged a resurgent Lucea Flames for the spot with a better goal difference in the two games played between the two teams after Lucea beat Railway Lane Tigers 68-33 in a rescheduled game on Friday night to finish with 13 points as well.
Two-time defending champions Catherine Hall All-Stars were also in the race for a place, but had their six-game winning run cut short by promoted MBCC Knights, who beat them 82-70.
Granville had qualified earlier with 14 points with six wins and two losses in the first two rounds.
Granville and Hoopers split their two games played so far; Jaguars winning the first game 74-62, before Hoopers returned the favour 57-52 in a game played two weeks ago.
Despite losing three games this season, Granville should start favourites but will have to work hard against a confident Hoopers team.
Shooting guard Dave Black and power forward Leroy Lawrence will lead the Granville team that has scored over 100 points in a game this season.
Marlon Comrie, Omar Bell and Dwayne Johns are the main offensive threats for Hoopers, who are coming off a loss to Flames last weekend.
On Friday, Lucea ran rough shodover a winless Tigers team that combined for 23 points in their first three quarters.
Led by Craig Dorman, who scored a season-high 32 points, Flames led 19-8, 33-15 and 50-23 at the intervals.
Dorman also had seven rebounds, five steals and four assists, while Julian Walker scored 14 points and had five rebounds for Flames.
Damian Smith scored 12 points and had 17 rebounds, three blocks and three steals for Railways, as Wayne Morris also had 12 points and eight rebounds.
Catherine Hall lost for the first time in seven games as they were worn down by the younger and fitter Knights, who were led by a game-high 24 points from Antoniel Watson.
The teams were tied at 17-all after the first quarter, but Knights jumped into a nine-point lead at half-time 47-38, while All-Stars cut into that lead after the third quarter, trailing by just five points, 59-64.
It was all Knights in the fourth quarter, however, they outscored All-Stars 18-11 for the final 12-point margin with Watson also getting 15 rebounds, as Lamar Mitchell scored 16 points for the winners.