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Giants sweep Cleaners

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Commonwealth Bank Giants, featuring a couple of new players, are now into the New Providence Basketball Association’s John Archer divisional championship series, thanks to a two-game sweep over the Double R Services Limited Cleaners in their first round playoffs.

The Giants, the divisional pennant winners, completed the series Monday night with a 95-80 victory over the Cleaners and they will wait on the winner of the other half of the series between the Y-Care Wreckers and the PJ’s Stingers. The Wreckers evened the series at 1-1 with a 103-102 decision on Monday night as well.

Commonwealth Bank, winners of game one 96-67 last Wednesday, got a game high 27 points with eight rebounds and three steals. Jeffrey Henfield had 21 points, three rebounds and three assists, Robson Memmon added 14 points with seven rebounds and Patrick Brice chipped in with 10 points, while Mario Dean (seven rebounds) and Samuel Johnson had eight and seven points respectively.

Double R Services, who took an early 24-19 lead at the end of the first quarter, saw Rashad Woodside (18 rebounds and four steals) and Reynard Minus both have 19 points each and Jorann Adderley and Tamiko King both had 17 points with three rebounds apiece. Adderley also had five assists.

As they move on, coach Perry Thompson said his Giants are heading in the right direction as they continue their march to another championship run.

“For basically a new team with about five players returning, we have some players who have never been at this level and have not been able to share that experience of being on the winning side,” Thompson said. “So for us as coaches, we are extremely happy to get out of the first round and now into the second round.

“Hopefully we can still get some consistency from our guys and be more focused, especially on the defensive end and controlling the ball. We still need some more energy, so if we can continue to improve on those three areas, I still love our chances.”

The Giants are off until Friday when the second round gets underway. Their opponents, however, will be determined tonight when the Wreckers and the Stingers play game three. Also tonight, the Vince Ferguson’s divisional final should be set when the the Real Deal Shockers and the Patron Regulators play their deciding game three. Waiting to play the winner on Friday as well are the Mail Boat Cybots, who swept aside the Pyramid Food Rockets.

Looking at the teams in the league, Thompson said his Giants will have to step it up every night they come to play because it’s not going to be an easy road.

“I’m grateful to see that a lot of teams have made the adjustments to their rosters and they have become more competitive,” Thompson said. “It’s been a really good season this year and everybody has been beating up on each other, so there’s no clear cut winner.

“We just have to improve and respond to the challenges that we are faced with. We have to look at it from the perspective of the table, the referees, our opponents and the fans who come out to see some good basketball and make sure that we all do whatever is necessary to move the league forward.”

The eventual champions of the league will get the opportunity to represent the NPBA at the Bahamas Basketball Federation’s National Round Robin Tournament set for April in Bimini.

“That’s our ultimate goal and we have been speaking to the new guys about how exciting it is to go into the Family Islands and the camaradarie and the relationship that we receive from the Family Islands,” Thompson said. “It’s something that all of our players should experience for themselves.

“But we always look forward to it because the Family Islands are always accommodating and it’s something different. It’s a different atmosphere. So it’s something that we would like to do for the new players. So if we keep focused, there’s not telling what could happen.”

Right now, the Giants have to get past either the Wreckers or the Stingers. For Thompson, it really doesn’t matter who they end up facing.

“On any given night, you can play anybody, but if you don’t come totally prepared, anything could happen as a team, so it doesn’t matter which team wins,” he said. “We just have to come out there and do the things that are necessary for us to be victorious at the end of the game.”

Wreckers 103, Stingers 102

With the game on the line in the final nine seconds, K Armstrong canned a pair of free throws to pull Y-Care from a 102-101 deficit to secure the win to level the series at 1-1. The charity shots capped off a 5-0 spurt to come from behind (102-97) in the final minute as Tavares Roker converted one of two free throws and Randy Williams added a three-pointer.

Emeka Watson paved the way for the Wreckers with 30 points and 17 rebounds. Williams had 26 points and four rebounds off the bench, Tavares Roker had 16 points, nine assists and four rebounds, Leon Bain had 14 points, three rebounds and two assists, Kessi Micial had nine points and eight rebounds and Armstrong finished with just five points, five rebounds and two assists.

For PJ, who won the opener of the series 93-74 on Wednesday, Devon Ferguson canned a game high 34 points with 12 rebounds, Able Joseph had 19 points, seven assists and five rebounds, Daniel Bullard had 12 points and eight rebounds, Batchlette LaFleur had 10 points, Tevin Hudson seven points, four assists and three rebounds and Jervonne Atkins (nine rebounds) and Kemsey Sylvetre both had six points.

Tonight, the Shockers are slated to play the Regulators in game three of their series at 7:30pm for the rights to play the Cybots on Friday in the semi-finals, while the Stingers will meet the Wreckers in the feature game at 9pm with the winner going on to face the Giants on Friday in the other semi-finals.

Game two in both semi-finals are set to be played on Saturday night.

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