Hawks, Dover into final

Hawks and Executive Air Dover are through to the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association Division One Basketball final.

The two teams secured their places Sunday at the Barbados Community College. Hawks took the best of three series semifinal playoff 2-0 over Police and Dover outplayed Pan American Life Insurance Warrens to win that showdown 2-1.

The most intriguing of the two semifinals was Warrens against Dover who came back strong to level game two last week and force yesterday’s game three that went totally in favour of the men from Christ Church at 94-79 (15-18, 41-38, 65-63) who sealed the series in convincing fashion.

Warrens were without the services of Peter Alleyne, one of their top shooters, and that proved costly. Warrens with the likes of Pearson Griffith, Kevin Austin and Bernard Daley were unable to stop Dover captain Godfrey Leacock from hitting a game high 32 points, inclusive of five three point shots. Jason Bowen also had a good time on court for Dover with 23 points and there wee also 18 points from Seon Hillman.

Godfrey Leacock (l) of Dover trying to block Zahir Motara with the assistance of teammate Richard Layne.

The fact that Alleyne was unable to play placed lots of pressure somewhat on Zahir Motara to score and even though the top shooting guard finished with 23 points and Austin and Griffith chipped in with 18 respectively, it still was not enough to stop Dover who had a two point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

That is when Warrens were put on the backfoot as Dover began to pick the pace up with Leacock and Bowen being allowed to free their arms with Warrens’ centers Griffith and Austin unable to do anything much. Motara no doubt took shots from all angles as expected but as the end drew near it became a one-sided affair to Dover.

Hawks (in blue and orange) won the best of three series 2-0 over Police.

In the other semifinal match played Hawks just got past Police 78-72 (23-27, 42-40, 62-61). Top scoring for Hawks was Tramaine Shaw with 20 points, Shaquan Newton netted 17, George Stanfield scored 14 and Rommel Bynoe, 13.

After the game reached 62-61 in favour of Hawks, Shaw shot 10 in the final quarter with contributions from Newton that allowed them to pull away from Police and seal the victory. Scoring for Police were Nicholai Williams with 20, Junior Small netted 16, Myrico Morris had 12 and Jarad Alleyne, 11.

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