It will be a mouth-watering showdown tonight when defending champions Urban Knights take on Majesty Gardens in the decisive Game Three of the best-of-three semi-final of the KFC/National Basketball League (NBL), at the National Stadium starting at 7p.m.
Majesty Gardens defeated the Knights 70-58 in Game Two to level the series at 1-1. The winners were also playing without their star player and leading scorer, Kemar McLiesh, because of a groin injury which he picked up in Game One on Sunday.
Port Royal Bulls secured their spot in the final by defeating Tivoli Wizards 64-61 in Game Two for a 2-0 series victory. Damion Young led the way for the Bulls with a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds and received solid support from Leighton Meeks, with 13 points and seven rebounds. Dwayne Harris (13 points and 14 rebounds) and Anthony Farquharson (13 points and 13 rebounds) were the leading scorers for the Wizards.
Ludlow Barker, coach of Majesty Gardens, said despite the numerous changes the team faced in the build-up to the game, they weren't prepared to give up.
"Whenever you talk about people living in the inner city with their backs against the wall, we were prepared to fight like wild dogs and we did and now we are back in it and hoping to do the same on Thursday," said Barker.
Feeling great
He added: "I am feeling really great because this one was really for Kemar because everybody thought we were dead in the water without our star player, but I have told you before that we have a lot of weapons and this is a great team."
Kevin Alexander, coach of Urban Knights, said they will have to improve on their offence if they are to secure a spot in the final.
"Once we execute our systems then we will take care of the results," said Alexander.
"Urban Knights have to go back to what got us those 25 victories this season and the players have to move away from their egos. I though tonight it (ego) reared its ugly head and we are going to get it back in check for Thursday's game and without this we are not going make it to the finals."
Majesty Gardens came out firing in the first quarter, outscoring the Knights 13-0 at the end of the period. It is the first time in local basketball history that a team has failed to score in a quarter.
The Knights made their first points of the game two minutes into the second period, when Andy Smith hit two free throws. Majesty Gardens led 32-20 at half-time.
Majesty Gardens, stepped up their defence in the third period, as they outscored the Knights (18-13) for a 50-33 lead at the end of the period.
However, the Knights rallied strongly to cut the deficit to eight in the final three minutes, courtesy of André Murray, who came off the bench to hit three 3-pointers and Smith, who also drained two 3-pointers to give their team a glimmer of hope. However, Majesty Gardens held their nerve in the final minutes to hang on for victory.
Todd led the way for the south St Andrew team with a game-high 25 points and 13 rebounds and received solid support from Christopher Berry, with 18 points and eight rebounds. For the Knights, Smith scored 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Murray scored 10 points.