By 1 point Knights live to fight another day!
The Knights stayed alive in the Championship with a series leveling 73-72 against the Bayside Blazers at the Save the Seed Energy Centre in Duff’s Bottom, Tortola.
While both teams appeared evenly matched it was do or die for Knights and they came out fighting like their lives depended on it.
The Knights, knowing they had to win to send the Championship into a game three, having lost on Friday October 31, 2014 with the score being 88-76, took the game to the Bayside Blazers right from the tip off and with their Big Four dictating the early exchanges against Deon J. Edwin and Asim Z. C. Beazer, raced into 20-11 first quarter lead.
That advantage was stretched to 12 points when Jevon K. Serrant splashed from down town to make it 23-11. However Edwin also scored from long range and added a two before Beazer atoned for an early miss to make it 27-18.
Serrant restored the 10 point gap with another long range basket and Kenrick Thomas added a “3” to make it a 13 point game at 33-20. Serrant and Edwin exchanged baskets as half time drew closer, Sandy E. Nadal sunk a “3”, a foul by Jolyon J. D. Wilson on Romano Peters saw the score reach 40-27 as Peters went one for two from the free throw line and another foul by Wilson gave Peters the chance to make it 42-27, which he duly did and give the Knights their biggest lead of the night.
As the clock wound down, Louie A. Poblete notched a “3” and a Jubal K. Jones basket reduced the deficit to nine, but the Knights looked secure at 44-35.
The second half began with a flurry of missed baskets including Serrant and Nichols Charles both missing attempted “3’s”, Shakeem E. Freeman missed both his free throw attempts and Edwin and Houston Penn finally scored to move the game along. Nigel Todman then had a big block on Beazer as did Serrant on Freeman, but the Bayside Blazers stormed back into the Game, first through Beazer and then Freeman with an “and one” to make the score 47-42 with still over six minutes left to play in the 3rd quarter.
Peters scored for the Knights, Nadal recycled the ball to Chaurbin V. Smith, Beazer over threw a pass to Poblete, Edwin slammed home on a Poblete pass, Xavier Pemberton tipped in Todman’s effort, Beazer rolled in on the fly, Pemberton scored again and at 53-48 neither side was prepared to give an inch to their opponents.
The Knights lead hovered around the same five or six point mark until the third quarter buzzer sounded with a leaping spinning effort from Thomas to make the score 61-54.
The fourth quarter brought more drama with the fans getting behind their team’s, benches rising to their feet to applaud or castigate their players, opponents and officials alike and a flurry of action at both ends of the court.
Todman increased the lead to 9 points before Smith went one for two from the free throw line and Edwin recorded an “and one”, put back a “3”, drew a foul from Penn, got some benefit from some soft calls, was blocked by Thomas, scored a two, missed an extra shot from the Charity Stripe and made a herculean effort to bring his team back into contention.
With the score now 65-60, half way through the final period, the Bayside Blazers were on fire and took the lead at 65-66 on Freeman basket. Todman leveled the game with a visit to the free throw line, with four minutes left, Serrant put the Knights up two, Beazer tied it up at 68-68 with two free throws, Thomas also went two for two to restore the Knights advantage, Edwin missed both his free throws and then scored one from another visit, Smith missed, Beazer missed, Edwin missed and with a huge rebound the Knights claimed the ball with 2:18 left to play.
Serrant made it 72-69, Smith 72-71 with 1:42 left, Charles missed, Peters missed both his free throws, Smith leveled the game from the free throw line with 1:16 left, Charles scored with a free throw moments later to make it 73-72 inside the last 60 seconds, Serrant seemingly handed the Blazers a life line and the ball with an air shot, but the Blazers were penalized for a double dribble and the next play which proved to be the last strong defense under their basket saw the Knights deny the Blazers a shot and take the final into a third and deciding game tonight, Sunday.
Top Performers for the Knights were Serrant with 22 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals; Peters with 15 points and 4 rebounds as well as Charles with 11 points and 2 rebounds.
Only Edwin reached double digit points for the Bayside Blazers as he finished with almost half his team’s total effort, adding 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 7 steals.
The Platinum Sponsors for the Hon Julian Fraser Save the Seed National Basketball League are; NAGICO Insurances & Digicel (BVI) Ltd.
The other Sponsors of the League are: The Hon. Julian Fraser RA, Bishop John I. Cline and the Save the Seed Energy Centre, Ogier, International Motors, The Ministry of Education and Culture, National Bank of the Virgin Islands, Caribbean Insurers Ltd., D & B Heavy Equipment Services, Burke’s Garage Ltd., Nanny Cay Marina & Hotel, Tropical Rentals Ltd., and CIBC First Caribbean International Bank.
Schedule of final game
Sunday, 2 November 2014
7:00 pm Knights vs Bayside Blazers
Closing ceremony immediately after game
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