Po­lice reached the Men’s First Di­vi­sion Big Four Fi­nals on Sat­ur­day night, de­liv­er­ing a hard-fought 75-67 vic­to­ry over arch-ri­vals South­side Elite in a thrilling game three de­cider in the Na­tion­al Bas­ket­ball Cham­pi­onships at the Mal­oney In­door Sports Are­na.

The “law­men” over­came an ear­ly deficit to clinch the best-of-three semi­fi­nal se­ries 2-1, earn­ing the right to chal­lenge Mal­oney Pac­ers for the na­tion­al crown, start­ing Fri­day at the South­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na (SRISA) in Pleas­antville, San Fer­nan­do. Pac­ers swept Strak­er Nets, 2-0, in their semi­fi­nal se­ries af­ter a 91-72 vic­to­ry in game one and a 94-74 win in game two.

Po­lice’s vic­to­ry was an­chored by a dom­i­nant in­te­ri­or per­for­mance from post-play­er Dex­troy Man­swell, who bul­lied his way to a team-high 19 points. He found a per­fect part­ner in for­ward Fab­rice Fish­er, whose 18-point con­tri­bu­tion kept the South­side de­fence on its heels. While South­side Elite start­ed strong, lead­ing 22-19 af­ter the first quar­ter be­hind the sharp­shoot­ing of Tyriq Singh and Je­lani Val­ley, each with 20 points, the mo­men­tum changed in the sec­ond pe­ri­od.

​Po­lice, which won game one 85-78 but lost game two 76-65, tight­ened their de­fen­sive ro­ta­tions and be­gan to win the bat­tle on the glass. By half­time, they had edged ahead 40-38. The third quar­ter proved to be the de­ci­sive stretch, as Mika­hail Williams (14) and Sey­lon Williams (10) ig­nit­ed a scor­ing run that pushed the lead to 63-55. South­side fought valiant­ly in the fi­nal quar­ter, but the ex­pe­ri­ence of the Po­lice squad al­lowed them to man­age the clock and seal the eight-point win, aveng­ing their loss to Elite in the South Zone fi­nal se­ries ear­li­er this year.

​The in­ten­si­ty of the Na­tion­al Bas­ket­ball Cham­pi­onships, be­ing host­ed by the Na­tion­al Bas­ket­ball Fed­er­a­tion of T&T (NBFTT), ex­tend­ed in­to the youth brack­ets, where the stars of to­mor­row be­gan their own quests for Big Four glo­ry.

On Sun­day, Mal­oney Pac­ers over­came a slug­gish start to dom­i­nate Bronx 91-60 in the Boys’ U-17 Di­vi­sion. Bronx looked poised for an up­set ear­ly, lead­ing 21-14 af­ter the first quar­ter. How­ev­er, Pac­ers found their rhythm in the sec­ond half, led by a spec­tac­u­lar 35-point ex­plo­sion from Nko­bie Ince. Sup­port­ed by Joshua Fontenelle’s 24 points, Pac­ers outscored Bronx 52-25 across the fi­nal two pe­ri­ods to take a 1-0 se­ries lead.

​Mean­while, Spar­tans sent a loud mes­sage to the rest of the field with a 100-60 drub­bing of Roy­al­ty. From the open­ing tip, Spar­tans were re­lent­less, rac­ing to a 29-10 first-quar­ter lead. Zachary Julien led five Spar­tans in dou­ble fig­ures with 22 points, show­cas­ing a depth that Roy­al­ty sim­ply could not match. The oth­ers were William Fran­cis (14), Idris Mar­tin (14), Ke­vani Botswain (13) and Zane Pe­ters 12.

For Roy­al­ty, Reuel Mar­tin led with 17 points and Ja­son Best was sec­ond-best of­fen­sive­ly with 14 points.

On Sat­ur­day, Roy­al­ty dis­played a dom­i­nant per­for­mance with a 77-42 vic­to­ry over EBA in the Girls U-19 Di­vi­sion. Joelle Best (21) and Jalia Best (18) spear­head­ed the win­ner’s of­fence, lead­ing by 31 points (43-12) at the half be­fore claim­ing the huge 35-point win. In the oth­er sched­uled matchup, Club En­ter­prise moved to a 1-0 se­ries lead af­ter win­ning by de­fault against 500 Hawks.

​COR­REC­TION: In a re­port some two Sun­days ago in the fi­nal round of match­es in the Girls’ U-19 Di­vi­sion, Makalyah Black­ett was in­cor­rect­ly iden­ti­fied as the top scor­er for Club En­ter­prise. The lead­ing scor­er was ac­tu­al­ly Maka­da Prescott with 18 points in Club En­ter­prise’s 56-23 win over 500 Hawks. The NBFTT has since cor­rect­ed the sta­tis­tics and apol­o­gised for the er­ror.

Big Four semi­fi­nal re­sults

Sun­day

Boys U-17 Di­vi­sion (Game 1)

Mal­oney Pac­ers 91 (Nko­bie Ince 35, Joshua Fontenelle 24, Jo­van­ni Bak­er 10, Kanye George 10) vs Bronx 60 (En­esto Williams 15, davon Ma­habirs­ingh 11, Dante Ma­habirs­ingh 11, Ce­cil Seep­aul 10). Quar­ters: 1st 21-14 (Bronx), 2nd 39-35 (Pac­ers), 3rd 63-51 (Pac­ers). Pac­ers lead 1-0.

Roy­al­ty 60 (Reuel Mar­tin 17, Ja­son Best 14) vs Spar­tans 100 (Zachary Julien 22, William Fran­cis 14, Idris Mar­tin 14, Ke­vani Botswain 13, Zane Pe­ters 12). Quar­ters: 1st 29-10, 2nd 45-33, 3rd 74-53 (All in favour of Spar­tans). Spar­tans leads 1-0.

Sat­ur­day

Men’s First Di­vi­sion (Game 3)

Po­lice 75 (Dex­troy Man­swell 19, Fab­rice Fish­er 18, Mika­hail Williams 14, Sey­lon Williams 10) vs South­side Elite 67 (Tyriq Singh 20, Je­lani Val­ley 20, Clint Gra­ham 11). Quar­ters: 1st 22-19 (Elite), 2nd 40-38 (Po­lice), 3rd 63-55 (Po­lice). Po­lice won se­ries 2-1.

Girls U-19 Di­v­sion (Game 1)

EBA 42 (Adrielle Joseph 11, Kaleigh Shaw 10) vs Roy­al­ty 77 (Joelle Best 21, Jalia Best 18, Asha­ki Charles 17). Quar­ters: 1st 19-7, 2nd 43-12, 3rd 58-27 (All in favour of Roy­al­ty). Roy­al­ty leads 1-0.

Fri­day’s match­es (At SRISA)

Boys U-17 Di­v­sion

Bronx vs Mal­oney Pac­ers, 7 pm

Men’s First Di­vi­sion

Po­lice vs Mal­oney Pac­ers, 8.30 pm