Courts/Unicomer dump Sagicor to clinch Div 2 3-on-3 basketball title
COURTS/UNICOMER defeated Sagicor ‘B’ 37-25 to win the 2015 Business House Basketball Association (BHBA) Division Two League best-of-five finals 3-1 at the Stadium Basketball Courts on Wednesday night.
It was an outstanding performance from Courts/Unicomer who were playing in the finals for the first time in their four years of participation in the Division Two League. They lost only one game for the entire season and that was Game One of the best-of-five finals, going down 36-41 to Sagicor ‘B’.
Game Two was won by Courts/Unicomer 37-14, Game Three was won by Courts/Unicomer 34-28 before wrapping up the series on Wednesday night.
Winning coach Dave Smith was confident of victory all season. “I was extremely confident from the start of the competition that Courts/Unicomer would have won the league easily,” he said.
“I am very elated, and we stepped up our game well after having lost Game One, we went back to the drawing board and corrected our mistakes. We know that NHT is also a good shooting team and we had to produce good defence work to give them less chance of shooting too many baskets,” Smith said.
Now he is looking forward to competing in the Division One League next season. “It is very tough up there as we have seen this season and we are hoping to be a good competitive team as we will have to make further adjustments,” he noted.
Meanwhile, losing coach Mike Kirlew was a dejected man at game’s end. “We did not play well and we allowed Courts to beat us all the way from shooting rebounds and defence.
“There was no intensity among the players as Courts were pushing much harder than us in Game Four on Wednesday night. Our main player Mark Chambers, who plays the key role for us throughout, did not have a good game in all four games, and so he put a lot of pressure on the other players,” Kirlew said.
Royan Folkes led the scoring for Courts/Unicomer with 11 points with Ian Mannings scoring three three-pointers, while for Sagicor ‘B’, Lauristan Gibson scored 13 points including three three-pointers. Courts led 19-15 at half time before puling away to victory in the second half.
Meanwhile, the best-of-five Division One League series was locked at 2-2 with the fifth and final Game Five to be played on Monday, between defending champions Grace Foods (Cannings) and National Housing Trust (NHT), scheduled to begin at 6:30 pm.
National Housing Trust (NHT) defeated champions Grace Cannings 36-31 to level the series 2-2 last Wednesday night after winning Game Four.
Winning coach Lennox Lindo of NHT said that he players played well as they limited the scoring efforts of Dwayne Ritchie.
“We need to do the same in the final Game Five next Monday and do not allow them to go inside with their shooting, but make them stay at the perimeter circle as they are good inside shooters,” explained Lindo.
Losing player/coach Tyrone Fairweather said: “The team did not play well as they did not play under instructions. They were playing their own game.”
The principal scorers for National Housing Trust (NHT) were Michael Blake with 11 points, including three three-pointers, Christopher Jennings with 11 points, while for Grace Cannings, Jermain Garricks scored 10 points with two three pointers scored by Dwayne Ritchie.