Knights turn tables on Jaguars in WBA Elite League
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Cricket Club Knights ended defending champions Granville Jaguars’ season-long winning streak in the Western Basketball Association Elite League, after scoring a 67-62 victory in their rescheduled second-round game at Montego Bay Cricket Club on Tuesday.
A game-high 23 points from Antonio Spence, who also had a double-double, assisted the Knights in avenging their first-round loss, and closed the gap with Jaguars to two points, with a game in hand.
Also on Tuesday, Holland Saints snapped their four-game losing skid, beating Cornwall Courts Chargers 74-60 to stay in the race for the final semi-final spot.
Granville leads the standing on 25 points and a game to be played, with Knights in second on 23 points and two games in hand, while Catherine Hall All-Stars and Holland Saints are tied on 20 points.
Knights led at every interval in their morale-boosting win, leading 17-15 after the first quarter, and were up 32-28 at half-time, before they created some space with a 46-38 lead at the end of the third quarter.
Spence scored 23 points and had 17 rebounds and Ralique Grant also scored in double digits with 13 points, as Jhaun Bryan and Rayon Gardiner grabbed 13 and 11 rebounds, respectively.
Brendan Dawkins was the top scorer for Granville with 14 points and eight rebounds, while Nicholas Minott scored 10 points and had nine rebounds as Ryan Harrison got 11 rebounds and Alek Gilchrist had 10.
In the other game, Saints recovered from a slow start with a big second quarter to run away with a comfortable win over Chargers with three players getting double-doubles.
Chargers led by a point 14-13 after the first quarter, but Saints responded with 28 points in the second quarter and took over the lead at 41-29 and were up by 17 points, 57-40 at the end of the third quarter.
Joel Smith scored 16 points and had 14 rebounds for the winners, supported by Kenrick Lindo, who knocked down 12 points and had 13 rebounds and Shavon Wallace scored 11 points and had 10 rebounds. Aldane Anderson led all scorers with 27 points for Holland.
Adrian Campbell had a double-double for Chargers with 16 points and 15 rebounds, while Rayon Grey and Giovanni Bailey both scored 17 points and Johnathon McIntosh had 12 rebounds.