Belfield hold down Police in first season win

Belfield are now 1-1 to start the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association’s First Division League season after holding the Police Sports Club at bay to take their first season win 53-41.

The Culloden Road court was the venue where the assault was done and Belfield made the intent known from the very first whistle. Belfield has definitely been practising in the off-season and looked like a well-oiled team against the law enforcement representatives. By the end of the first quarter, the lead was seven, 14-7 and Belfield kept pushing the pace.

Police recovered well from the poor start and matched the opposition point for point in the second period. Nicolai Williams scored six straight points for Police to start the quarter and helped his side not fall further behind in the fight as they went into the half still down 7, 26-19.

No matter how hard Police played, Belfield kept their foot on the pedal. The two teams went hard at each other to start the second half to put up the highest point total for a quarter in the game. It still was not enough for Police and they were outscored 17-15 in the third, stretching the lead to nine (43-34).

The last 10 minutes of the game were quiet compared to the third quarter. Belfield won the quarter again, but the scoring did not come as easy as the previous quarters. Police continued to sink and the final whistle put them in second place, defeated by 12.

Andre Cumberbatch had a team-high 13 points for Belfield and Basil Weatherhead had 10. Paul Corbin and Roland Field both gave a winning effort to finish with eight and seven points respectively. Nicolai Williams was Police’s silver lining, as he played a great game in the paint to top all scorers with 21 points. His biggest helpers on the team were Jamario Clarke and Damien Leacock, who both added six points each.

Belfield will have a big test tomorrow at home against the Spartans at 8 p.m., while Police will take on the Patriots in Clapham at 6:30 p.m. (AS)