Top seeds secure wins

The Vyb Patriots and Spartans both secured wins to help cement their position at the top of the table in the Grant and Garnes Zone of the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association First Division League competition.

Patriots dealt with Belfield Ballers on their home court, taking the win by 14, 68-54 in the end. With the aid of another dominant performance by Julian Walcott, Patriots commanded the key. Walcott finished with a game high 16 points from mostly driving and finishing at the hoop strong along with cleaning up any offensive rebounds that came his way. New addition Neil Hoyte hit his midrange jumpers as well as rebounded well alongside Walcott in a 12 point winning effort. Cheyne Freeman gave good support defensively on the perimeter and contributed seven points on the night.

Belfield looked out of sorts and never really got a rhythm and were in a nine point hole at 32-23 by the end of the first half. Patriots outscored them 16-14 in the third and 20-17 in the fourth to extend the lead and take the win. The home team had no answer for the big men of the Patriots and also could not hit their outside shots at the other end. With no outside scoring they tried to work the inside game but points were slow in coming while the opponents were motoring along. Mario Springer and Paul Corbin still put up some resistance and scored 14 and 10 points respectively.

Spartans played a clinical final quarter to silence the Kolij Lions 61-51. Lions were right in it after halftime, just down 1 point 27-26 and then were still within a one basket margin at the end of the third 42-39. However the combination of Dale Franklyn and Ryan Maycock in the post along John-Paul Alleyne and Damien Skeete on the wings was enough to make a run in the last quarter to put away the top seeded Lions.

Maycock had a team high 13 points with Franklyn and Alleyne adding 11 each and Skeete 10. Romone Blackman tapped out with 16 points in the loss while Glyne Harrison had 11 and Davidson Francis tallied 8 points for Kolij.

The win places Spartans in a strong third place position with 2 wins and 2 losses while Lions now stand with 3 wins and 2 losses tied with Patriots. (AS)