MAJESTY Gardens and Tivoli Wizards dug their heels in to snatch Game One of the best-of-three NBL Powered by Flow national semi-finals play-off on Thursday night at the National Stadium Courts.

Trailing for the most of the match and by 19 points on one occasion, Majesty weathered the early storm to overpower defending champions Urban Knights, 72-69, while Southern Conference champions Tivoli kept pole position to outpoint Manchester Pythons, 80-69.

The Knights galloped to 25-13 in the first quarter and kept their double digit lead at the half-time break, 43-31.

With Majesty building a reputation as a last-quarter team, the Knights lingered through the third to retain the advantage at 56-45 before Majesty came roaring back with the heart of a lion.

The Southern Conference runners-up moved to within eight points early in the fourth quarter, but Javan Bailey and a three-pointer from Andy Smith, both working closely together, pushed the defending champions up to a 13-lead with five minutes remaining.

But the three-man combination of Baldon Todd, Kemar McLeish and Havando Dunn electrified Majesty to an 18-0 burst that floored the defending champions.

At 25.9 seconds left in the match, Majesty edged ahead, 69-66. A Todd free throw put Majesty up 70-66, but a Bailey three-pointer had Knights behind by a point.

Two more free throws by Todd pushed Majesty to a three-point lead at 72-69, before the Knights supporters shouted “overtime”. But it was not to be.

In the very popular cheerleading competition between matches and during half-time, Camperdown All Sparks won the $50,000 prize money.

In late match, Anthony Farquharson tormented the Manchester Pythons defence to finish with a game-high 31 points and 11 rebounds, ahead of Tivoli teammate Kirk Ferguson, who ended with 17 points.

Game Two takes place tonight with Majesty taking on the Knights at 7:00 pm at the Stadium Courts and Tivoli meeting the Pythons at 3:00 pm at Belair High in Mandeville.