U.B. takes semi-pro basketball crown
Good evening. I?m James Adderley rolling into your living rooms with this delivery of Sports Monday. We take you immediately to sunny San Pedro where Saturday night brought the decisive game five in this year semi-pro basketball title series. As the Tiger Sharks hosted the U.B. Black Jaguars of Belmopan. It is indeed a historic first for La Isla Bonita and we commend the community support in evidence.
As we go to the tip off we must remind you that the San Pedro team took the out at the Island, while U.B. rode back within the friendly confines of capital city Belmopan to force tonight?s decisive game five.
The first bucket of this match-up comes from the Island?s Keith Acosta, whose turn around jump over Shabba Smith gets to home team going.
The U.B. team answers right back, and its Lennox Bowman Jr. beating everybody down court to give his team the early lead.
Veteran Darren Bovell then sinks the long range jumper at the top of the caye for three as U.B. moves firmly ahead. On this press the big man Jeff Clifton assumes the role of passer, he gets the assist and Bowman gets the bucket and at the end of the first quarter. U.B. leads 23-20.
In the second quarter Jeff Clifton gives us a peek into his wide array of skills with this quarter back pass that finds Compton ?Speedy? Staine who converts.
In the meanwhile, the rookie Bowman says to Keith Acosta: ?you?re Superman, but I?ve got kryptonite!? So Lennox Bowman strikes for two more. He would lead U.B. with the game high of twenty-six points.
And they say folks when the bounces go your way even the much vaunted home cooking has to take second place. At the half the U.B. lead is 41-35.
Meanwhile folks the visitors play their best basketball in the third quarter. Bowman to Clifton and the scoreboard moves.
Here?s a moment in this ballgame that clearly demonstrates the high octane intensity in this particular confrontation. We?ve counted at least six turnovers and four fowls inside this scramble but the referees do let them play.
Now meet Kirk ?Shabba? Smith, who?s having a good outing today, strikes for two and would finish with thirteen points and eight rebounds.
So the Islanders go to ?Superman? Acosta to stop the bleeding. He gives them three right here. He would finish with an impressive statistics of twenty-four points, nine rebounds and three assist.
Still folks the U. B.?s Jeff Clifton and Lennox Bowman continue to sizzle as the alley oop is completed with a soft touch.
And then Clifton shows off his hook shot at the end of three. It?s a sixteen point U.B. lead.
The home team does come back in the fourth quarter. Stephen Williams strikes for three and he would finish with sixteen points.
Bruce Rowland who would finish with twelve points strikes for another three right here, but it?s too little too late. U. B. Jaguars who were down two games win game five. 85-79 to win the 2006 semi-pro title and a cheque for twenty-five thousand dollars. We certainly extend our congratulations.
James Adderley
?How did this team manage this turn around to win the 2006 semi-pro basketball title??
Kirk ?Shabba? Smith, U.B. Team
?From the beginning of the semi-pro we started off very slow. I think we started off one and two. Everybody was saying, oh we are too young just because we have a lot of young guys on the team. But really we were not gelling early and down the stretch we came on strong. We just started to play well. Very good defence and they were doubting us still saying, oh they might make play-offs. We were the first ones to make play-offs and surprise everybody. This is actually the hard work that these guys were putting in because we really worked out very hard.?
?Our defence was kinda slacking off and they were getting a lot of second shots of the free throws and stuff. Our guys were really turning over the ball, so we kept calm because these guys were making the runs. So we just needed to keep calm and play good defence. We turned around in the last part of the quarter and that really pushed us on top of this game.?
Jeff Clifton, U.B. Team
?We were more aggressive in our offence, defence and in our rebound. We got out of red. In the two games here they ran us, so they had us tired. In the last three games we ran them and made them tired early, and in the end then we got a lead. Because for them to get back they needed to exert extra energy that they needed to save for fourth period. We were able to save because we had a big lead.?
Keith Acosta, Tiger Sharks Team
?I never thought that we would come out and lose three games straight. When we won the first two games we kinda got lackadaisical and felt like it was over. We got to give credit to the U.B. Jaguars; they fought back and they rallied to the end. We wanted to come out and be impressive for the first time in front of the home crowd, but unfortunately it was not meant to be. We came out and fought hard but they fought harder.?
Turing to the Guiness 8 Ball Tournament News, on Friday M.J.?s hurt Triangle 8-2 and Copa Cabana edged El Paso 4-2, while on Saturday Triangle beat Advance 8-2 and M.J.?s got the 6-4 win over Copa. The standings right now with one weekend to go in regular season play looks like this.
Advance – 108 points
Mike?s Club – 100 points
Catt?s Place ? 92 points
Triangle ? 80 points
Copa ? 68 points
M.J.?s ? 60 points
Shooters ? 60 points
Lion King ? 50 points
El Paso ? 32 points
The top four will move on to the play-offs and we?ll keep you posted.
Finally folks, controversy reared its ugly head at the Joan Garbutt Stadium inside Esperanza yesterday, allegedly because the agreed format was not enforced. Three teams were battling for second place behind Esperanza Wolverines already crowned champion. Namely Unitedville Hot Mama?s, Camalote Playerade and Belmopan United. In game one Hot Mama?s beat Camalote 9-5, and then also got the win over Belmopan United 6-3. Then promptly declared themselves champion according to the Camalote?s team they should have to beat at least one of the two teams twice. President Ken Fuller of the Cayo Softball Association informed us this morning that the format was based on a point system and not the usual double elimination, so Unitedville is officially the runner-up according to the president. Of course the Camalote team calls that statement false and the controversy will continue and we will try to keep you posted.
Hey folks that?s our show for tonight. We certainly invite you back same time, same place next week. Jah, over all I am James Adderley.
