MONTEGO BAY, St James — Cricket Club Knights and Tivoli Wizards were winners in the double-header at the Montego Bay Cricket Club as the Jamaica Basketball Association’s National Basketball League qualifying got underway on Sunday.

Cricket Club Knights, the Western Confederation champions, beat St George’s Saints 60-53, while Tivoli Wizards beat Falmouth Saints 87-71.

Twelve teams are taking part in the qualifying competition that was pushed back a week to accommodate the Jersey Mike’s Jamaica Classic that was played in Montego Bay the previous weekend.

The teams are placed in three groups of four teams where they will each play three games and the top two will advance to the next stage of the competition.

On Sunday, St George’s Saints took a one-point lead (9-8) after the first quarter, but the home team, led by Antonio Spence’s game-high 19 points, took over the team in the second half and led 26-23 at the half-time break and were up 43-38 after the third quarter.

Spence also got eight rebounds and two blocked shots, while Jhaun Bryan scored nine points and had eight rebounds for the winners.

Conroy Morgan scored 16 points and had six rebounds for St George’s and Kirk Ferguson scored 14 points and had seven rebounds.

Tivoli Wizards rallied from a first-quarter deficit to score a 16 points 87-71 win over Falmouth Saints, thanks to a double-double from Roman Parkes.

Falmouth led 21-15 after the first half, but the visitors rallied and led 44-37 at half-time and were up 59-52 at the end of the third period.

Parkes scored 24 points and had 19 rebounds, and Omar Barnes scored 22 points for Tivoli Wizards while Michael Schloss scored 22 points and had seven rebounds and five assists for Falmouth with Michael Johnson scoring 14 points.

– Paul Reid