TIVOLI Wizards and Majesty Gardens Legends blew into the final of the NBL Powered by Flow Southern Conference final Tuesday night after they sent St George’s Slayers and Urban Knights packing respectively, at the National Stadium Courts.

Anthony Farquharson acted like a charm for the Wizards, hitting 27 points and adding 10 rebounds, supported by the intense Omar Barnes (19 points, four assists) and the 2.08m (6ft 10in)

Andrew Whilby (12 points, 20 rebounds, four blocks, three assists) as Tivoli won, 79-73.

Player/coach Rohan Robinson (20 points, six rebounds) and Michael Jackson (20 points) featured for the Slayers, who led 19-15 at the first quarter, 40-30 at half-time, and 56-49 at the end of the third quarter.

In the final quarter, Tivoli targeted Robinson by double-teaming him. The Slayers kept at least a three-point lead up to 1:27 in the game when Mowanga Campbell and Farquharson took over for the West Kingston team.

“I thought that my team would have put a lead on Slayers because they were so focused at practice. But at the stadium it’s a different thing,” said Tivoli coach Edward Marshall.

“We didn’t do that in the first half; they were up by 10, but we pulled through and won the game,” added Marshall, who is reaping success in his first year as coach.

Robinson acknowledged that the Slayers were suffering their third defeat at the hands of Tivoli this season.

He said the Slayers had the game under control until double-teaming forcing the team “to start shooting from outside, which basically led to fast breaks for Tivoli”.

“We definitely believe that we can beat them, but Tivoli has a lot of role players. We’re having the problem of sharing the ball and sticking to the

game plan, turning and knowing where exactly to put the ball,” explained Robinson.

In the late match the Knights, needing to win by eight points in the two-match aggregate final, won 57-56 and failed to advance to today’s best-of-three Southern Conference finals starting at 7:00 pm.

Andy Smith led for the Knights with 20 points and 13 rebounds, ahead of Javan Bailey, 14 points, five rebounds.

Kemar McLeish starred for Majesty with 18 points and six rebounds, with Baldon Todd finishing with 14 points and 16 rebounds.