Warriors in, Lakers out of BABA Premier Playoffs

THE Barbados Hilton Resort Warriors are officially through to the Co-operators General Insurance Barbados Amateur Basketball Association Premier Competition Playoffs.

Playing against the Pan American International Insurance Warrens Sports Club at the YMCA, Warriors just had to come away victorious to seal their place in the playoffs, and that they did. It was not a significant challenge, as Warrens could only muster a small team of premier players, and had to promote some of the first division junior players to field a full team.

The Warriors team were not up to full strength either, as Ricardo Toussaint was unavailable. Jamar Headley was top notch as usual and finished with a game high 26 points, while snatching down 13 rebounds to close out the night.

Nickolas King and Corey McDonald had a good night on the court, as well with King, finishing with 14 points, and McDonald had double of 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Justin Maloney had one of his better games of the season, as he tallied up 12 points, shooting 5 of 12 from the field against the weaker of the Warrens defence, whenever he realised a junior was defending his position.

Warrens was not too phased about the game, as they were already out of playoff contention, and had given their all and more in the previous game to upset Barbados Lumber Company Lakers.

Dario Cumberbatch top scored for the Warrens squad with 14 points with 7 rebounds. It was a tough matchup for him along with Clive Holder against the Warriors’ bigs, but Holder came away with 10 rebounds. Manuel Alleng had an easy going game, but attacked the hoop at will when he saw an opening, and as usual racked up the rebounds to contribute 12 points and 8 rebounds.

Kirtly Carter had a rough start to the season. As the main point guard for Warrens against defenders of high basketball IQ, he grew throughout the season and played well in the last game of the season, with 10 points as his total. The other forward, Greig Springer, had a quiet night to end with 2 points, 4 assists and 5 rebounds.

The Lakers had played the earlier game against the Vyb Patriots and came away with an easy 24 point victory, 73-59. Mark Bridgeman and Ormond Haynes were the top scorers for the team, with Bridgeman scoring 20 points and Haynes 18. Sidney “Bouncer” Rowe had his way in the paint to pull down 12 rebounds, while Jimal Singh had 13 points. For the Patriots Andre Stoute had 15 points, Stefan Brathwaite 12 and Shawn Ifill 11.