Vanderpool saves Pinelands

A last minute bucket by forward Charles Vanderpool sent the KFC Orange 3 Pinelands fans crazy in the stands and gave his team the 66-64 victory over a motivated City United Celtics who fought to the very end.

Playing in Game 1 of the series in the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association President's Cup, City United had just battled back from down 64-58 to tie the game at 64. Rachad Hall and Antoine Lawrence scored four and two points respectively to get them to that point, but the experience of Pinelands straight out of the timeout, saw Vanderpool get to the hoop and finish in the lane. Celtics called a timeout but the resulting three-point shot by Lawrence missed and second seeded Pinelands survived a serious scare against the #7 seed in the league.

City United have been challenging the big teams in the league only to fall short at the end, but they got the jump on Pinelands in the second quarter who had trouble scoring to close out the first half. Celtics outscored the Pine 8-20 in the second quarter to go ahead 28-36 at half-time. The hype would be short lived because Kiserian Adams helped the Pine to come storming back in the third, scoring nine points in the period. Pinelands evened the scoreline at 49-49 with the last quarter to play. Celtics fell behind but the youngsters put in the work to tie the game with seconds left on the clock before Vanderpool scored the final basket.

Vanderpool finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and the game winner; Adams had a game high 20 points and seven rebounds; and Derion Hurley scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Lawrence put up 16 points for the Celtics; Hall had 12 points and seven rebounds; and Anthony Barrow played well for 11 points and 10 rebounds.

The Celtics will have another opportunity to take down Pinelands when they face them again at 8 p.m. tonight at the Barbados Community College in Game 2 of the quarter-final series. However, a team like Pinelands is not likely to score eight points in a quarter again, so it will be an uphill battle for City United.

The first game of the evening was a win for the Combined Schools Tridents, 72-67, over the Barbados Lumber Company Lakers. It was the second win over the Lakers in four days with Brandon Ruck and Kyrone Alexander leading the way with 22 points and seven assists and 16 points and nine rebounds respectively. Primus Walrond and Saadiq Browne dominated the paint also for the Tridents – Walrond getting a double-double of 11 points and 13 rebounds while Browne had 11 rebounds.

Ricardo Jemmott top scored in the game with 28 points and 15 rebounds, but needed help down the stretch to defeat the school boys. The Lakers will have a chance to fight for a decisive Game 3 when they take on Combined Schools at 6 p.m. this evening.(AS)ꃧ