Spartans triumph in overtime thriller

In what has to be the most exciting Co-operators General Insurance Premier League game of the season, the Church Village Spartans barely edged the City United Celtics 97-96, in an overtime nail biter at the Barbados Community College on Sunday evening.

The scoreline entering the fourth quarter was 70-59 with Spartans having the clear advantage but City United showed grit and started the run that would force overtime. Rachad Hall pushed the pace of the game, putting up seven points in the fourth but it was Shawn “Midnight” Henry who scored a big basket in the lane and then smoked a three to bring the Celtics within 1, 75-74 with just over four minutes to play in the quarter. However every time the Celtics got close, the Spartans had an answer. 

Theo Greenidge slammed home a monster dunk to push the lead to 80-76 but yet again Celtics closed the margin, by courtesy of Hall. But then Dale Frankly and Keon Young both came up big with 47 seconds remaining and the Spartans led 84-80. Unfortunately for the Spartans with nine seconds remaining, a poor pass to Franklyn under his own basket saw the ball stolen by Richard Layne, who got the ball to Henry to launch a three which missed, but Layne fought for the rebound to put the ball up and in (84-84) as the buzzer sounded.

In the overtime session, the two sides traded baskets but an airball by Layne with 41 seconds left and his team up 92-94 left the door open for the Spartans. Phillip Harewood locked the score at 94 with a turn-around jumper but again it looked like City United would steal the win when Antoine Lawrence caught some steam against a slow-closing defence and scored to put Celtics up 94-96 with the board showing 22 seconds.

Fortunately, the Spartans have a guard named Elihu Diaz and the guard does amazing things on the floor. Diaz came off a screen set by Young and put a move on Henry that made him weak in the knees and by the time he recovered, Diaz had launched a rainbow three which hit nothing but net with 3.7 seconds left. Hall had one more opportunity to take the victory from the jaws of defeat by attacking the paint as the clock wound down, Hall missed the layup, with the ball rolling off the ring as the time ran out. The Celtics bench thought Hall was fouled but even so, it was not enough to hinder him from scoring the winning layup. 

It was tough luck for City United and Hall but he finished with 20 points, 8 rebounds and 5 steals, while Henry had a game high 21 points, Johnathan Dottin had 15 and Parris 14 points. For the victors, Diaz led the charge with a double double of 28 points and 13 rebounds with 7 assists. Both Greenidge and Harewood finished with double doubles with Greenidge putting up 20 points and 14 rebounds and Harewood 19 and 10. (AS)