Motara humbles Cougars as Warrens advance to KO final

THE Pan American International Insurance Warrens Sports Club came from behind to humble a confident Cougars team by a nine-point margin, 80-71, to advance to the final round in the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association’s First Division Knockout competition.

 

Cougars started the game well, getting off to a start that they needed against a team who had been so far undefeated in the BABA First Division League competition. The quarter ended with Cougars up 17-12, but it was not due to good defence, but rather Warrens missing open looks. Guards Peter Alleyne and Zahir Motara were a combined one of 10 from beyond the arc, but anyone who has seen Warrens play this season, knew that the circumstances would change as the game progressed.

 

As expected, Warrens started to heat up as they got warm and shots started to fall. Motara was the main heat source and started to put up shots at will. Cougars were still playing well and held a narrow two-point lead at the half, but unfortunately more Motara was to follow in the second half.

 

In the third quarter, it was the Motara vs. Callender show as Stevenson Callender stepped up to carry Cougars on his back. He started to attack the basket and also hit his signature pull-up jumper from the top of the key. He scored eight of his team’s 20 points with good support from Shawn Gaskin, who scored six of his 12 points in the third. The problem for Cougars was that Motara was a raging inferno, which they had no way of controlling. Motara hit 3 of his 7 three-pointers in the third quarter and kept the Cougars’ attempt at stretching their lead at bay. At the end of the third, the game was tied at 52 with one quarter to play.

 

The fire that Motara had started had spread to teammates including Javid Beckles and Cougars started to feel the heat from all round. Though Alleyne had not hit a single shot from beyond the arc, the Cougars still had to respect his shot. With that being the case, they were unable to cover Motara, Beckles and Alleyne all at once. The result was 6 three-pointers in the fourth quarter including three consecutive treys from Beckles that left the Cougars reeling and quarrelling amongst themselves, while Motara could be heard shouting, “You cannot contain all of us!” Callender tried to copy Warrens and started to pull up from beyond the arc repeatedly, but missed badly. There was still enough time for them to settle into a half-court set and score from quality looks, but panic had already set in leaving them in a state of disrepair.

 

Warrens pulled away calmly to take the win in the end to advance to face the Barbados Lumber Company Lakers Sports Club in the final next weekend at the Barbados Community College. Motara top scored in the game with 33 points, 21 of which were from beyond the arc. Peter Alleyne and Jonathan Dottin both scored 13, Javid Beckles had 9 and Pearson Griffith 6. Cougars were in it to the end and had scoring from four main sources. Callender finished with 24 from a good effort on the night, while centre player Shawn Gaskin scored 12. Premier experienced players Adrian Stewart and Adrian Catlyn ended the game with nine and eight points respectively. (AS)