Resilient Hitters take game 2 : Exodus dominates Cayon to take Game 1 of ‘A’ division Finals

Basketball City, St.Kitts (Thursday October 6th 2011):- Resilience !!!! That is the Hitters key word for this SKABA Finals series says veteran Head Coach James “Barman” Hanley and resilient they were tonight as the fought tooth and nail to snatch game 2 of the series.

Hitters had the advantage in the 1st half ending the period with a 32-30 advantage mainly due to the exceptional offensive and defensive play of Ansel “Bonzi” Revan.

The second half began and the Bucs took advantage with the consistent offensive onslaught of series top scorer Tamboura “Tambie” Caines. By the end of the 3rd quarter Bucs had a 9 point 59-50 advantage. Bucs held on to the lead for most of the 4th quarter but lost it in the final minute of the half when some critical turnovers led to a plethora of scoring opportunities for the Hitters which they took full advantage of and took the lead for the first time in the second half with 23 seconds remaining. Bucs gained control of the ball and quite rightly placed it in the hands of the team’s top scorer Tambie Caines. Caines was fouled and hit two free throws to tie the game with seconds remaining.

Hitters raced up the court and with just 2.3 seconds on the clock David “Longman” Dowell hit the winning bucket with a baseline drive to the hoop. The final score saw Hitters snatch game 2 with a 77-75 victory.

Player of the Game was Hitters guard Marlon “Jah Love” Powell who had 12 pts and 5 steals. Powell was ably assisted by Ansel “Bonzi” Revan who had 11 pts 4 rebs and 5 steals despite being out for most of the 4th quarter.

Ghuat Bucs was again led by Tamboura “Tambie” Caine who had 23 pts , 7 rebs, 3 stls, 3 assists. Sherwin Allen had 14 pts, 4 rebs, 3 steals. The best of 5 series continues on Sunday with the series tied 1-1 .

Thursday night also saw Game 1 of the best of 3 SKABA “A’ division finals series between Challengers Exodus and Cayon Lions. Both teams have already sealed and earned themselves promotion to the Premier division .

Challengers dominated the game from start to finish with the halftime score 41-27 in favour of Challengers. The 2nd half was much the same as Shawn “Shabba” Forbes and Delvin “Ziah” Marshall dominated the offensive and defensive output of the entire game. The game ended with Exodus recording a very dominative 77-72 victory to take Game 1.

Player of the Match was Delvin “Ziah” Marshall who had a game high 29 pts , 11 rebs, 4 stls while teammate Shawn “Shabba” Forbes had 15 pts, 10 rebs, 3 stls.

The steady skipper Tyrone “Ty” O’Loughlin led Cayon with 9pts, 3 rebs , 4 stls while Omari Warner ably assisted with 9 pts, 4 stls.

The series deciding Game 2 will be played on Sunday at 6:30pm at Basketball City.