MONTEGO BAY, St James — Montego Bay Cricket Club Knights could secure the final semi-final spot in the Western Basketball Association iCool/iDrade Elite Basketball League (EBL) if they can beat Inner-City Avalanche in the first game of a double header at the Montego Bay Cricket Club starting at 6:15 pm today.

Knights are coming off a moral boosting 16-point win (68-52) over semi-final aspirants MoBay Hoopers on Saturday and a win today would see them joining leaders and defending champions Catherine Hall All-Stars, Granville Jaguars and Holland Saints in the play-offs that are set to start on Wednesday.

Catherine Hall finished their schedule on 39 points, while Granville Jaguars who face Holland Saints in the second game today, are on 36 points with two games to go and could take over the top spot if they win both. Holland and Knights are on 34 points and 20 points respectively and will both end their schedule today.

The organisers could be forced to push back the start of the play-offs as they have yet to reschedule two games that were scheduled for last Tuesday but were rained out.

Meanwhile, promoted Muschett Falcons will be relegated to the Men’s Basketball Championships (MBC) as, after forfeiting Saturday’s game against Saints when they turned up over 40 minutes late, can only finish on 24 points and that would see them in last place.

On Saturday, Knights continued their good late season run to beat Hoopers and get the inside lane in the race for the final semi-final spot while Granville Jaguars moved closer to Catherine Hall with a close 65-63 win over Lucea Flames.

Big second and fourth quarters made the difference for Knights as, after the teams were tied at 11-11 at the end of the first quarter, they outscored Hoopers by 10 points (21-11) in the second to lead 32-22 at half time.

Hoopers cut the deficit in the third quarter to 43-36 but another big quarter saw Knights leading by as many as 22 points late in the game.

Daniel Malcolm of Knights led all scorers with 17 points, Mark Wright scored 14 points and had 13 rebounds before he fouled out late in the game, Antonio Spence scored 11 points and had 13 rebounds while Jhaun Bryan had 11 rebounds with his seven points.

Rayon Gardner’s 10 points and 12 rebounds were the best for Hoopers while Andre Hayles scored nine points, Jason Blake scored eight and Rayan Bolt got seven.

Dave Black’s 23 points was the difference between Jaguars and Flames as the Hanover club worked their way back from a double digit deficit to lose by just two points, outscoring Granville 39-19 over the second half.

Granville led 20-10 and 46-24 after the first two quarters but Flames stormed back in the third to cut the deficit to 11 points (46-57) and further eroded it with an 18-8 fourth quarter.

Granville won the battle on the boards with three players combining for 43 rebounds, Ryan Harrison getting 16, Michael Palmer 14 and Tafari Vassell 13.

Jvon Calderon scored 20 points and 18 rebounds to lead Lucea, Julian Walker scored 12 points while Sheldon Myrie and Norman Johnson both got 10 rebounds each.

Paul Reid