Victories for ACS and Spartans
A good night of basketball saw ACS United and Spartans come away with wins in the Co-operators General Insurance Barbados Amateur Basketball Associa-tion First Division league competition this past weekend.
Belfield was the venue of two of the four games on Saturday evening and ACS United and the Bato Laba Bears were up first. ACS had not been having a good season but against the Bears, a good first quarter was a start in the right direction. 19-11 was the score after the first, with United taking advantage of some poor shooting by the Bears. A combination of good outside shooting by Dwayne Cobham and Ja-Mal Grant along with Shemiele Balgobin inside was the right formula for ACS.
The flow of points dried up a bit in the second quarter and Bears won the quarter 9-10, finding themselves still down 7 at the half, 28-21. ACS’s third quarters have been abysmal this season, but back-to-back treys to start the period by Grant set the ball in motion. They kept the momentum going and through good, patient passing on the perimeter, the best scoring opportunities presented themselves.
ACS went up by 9, 47-38 to start the final quarter and as much as the Bears hung tough and tried to close the gap, they had no answer for Balgobin in the paint.
He scored 9 of his 20 points in the fourth alone and helped to seal the deal by the final whistle. Cobham finished with 14 points and Grant 13 while André Springer added 9. For Bears, Shakil Rock had the hot hand to score a game-high 23. Big Antonio Sealy had 13 and Jeremy Whittaker 10.
Spartans took on the home side Belfield in the second game of the night and dominated from start to finish. Belfield had their moments, but the ability of Spartans to attack from the outside and inside was just too much for the home team.
The end of the first quarter saw a 16-12 scoreline and at half-time it stood at 36-28. The third was where Spartans piled on their lead of 9 to extend their advantage to 62-45. The teams traded baskets in the fourth for an 18-all point tally. With Belfield unable to close the gap, Spartans took the win 80-63. Jason Bowen of Spartans led all scorers with 18 points, Ryan Maycock had 14 and Phillip Harewood 13. Roland Fields and Andrew Cumberbatch had the majority of Belfield points with 14 and 12 points respectively while Paul Corbin scored 10.