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The 2019 Barbados Amateur Basketball Association Second Division League Champions, the Barbados Hilton Resort Warriors.

Warriors win historic double

The Barbados Hilton Resort Warriors completed a perfect, undefeated 2019 Barbados Amateur Basketball Association (BABA) Second Division season on Tuesday night, when they lifted the league crown after cruising to an easy 64-51 victory against the Burger King Clapham Bulls and winning the finals series 2-0.

It was the dream of coach Frederick Bynoe – since Warriors won the Knockout title earlier this month – for the team to win both competitions this year without losing a single game. The double glory places the Warriors as the first team to capture both titles in the same year since the BABA Second Division was formed.

Speaking to the media after the game, Coach Bynoe said his side was short one of their dominant big men, but they decided to fight hard for the victory.

“I feel good. This was the goal; we wanted to go through the season unbeaten and we did that. Tonight we played a good team without our best, big man, Tito (Tyrone) Alexander, and the men decided that they would fight hard, especially Trevor (Simmons) who turned up tonight to play like Tito, and I was very glad to see that.”

He also lauded the Warriors’ effort in sticking to the game plan against the Bulls.

“The team stuck to what we had planned all the time which was to force them to make forced shots and keep certain players out of the game.”

The Bulls are a physical and defensive team and at one point in the third quarter, Bulls forward Halley Franklyn and Ron Grant of the Warriors got their arms wrapped up and Franklyn took offence to the length of time of the contact. Fortunately, Grant held his composure and walked away with the encouragement from his team-mates to play the game and ignore any taunting.

That, indeed, they did. In fact, after leading by 6 at the half 32-26, the Warriors held their opponents to just 6 points in the quarter while pushing the advantage to 47-32 at the end of the third at the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex.

Bynoe had warned his players to be wary of the physicality of the Bulls and their aggressive play on court.

“I always tell my players whenever we play the Clapham Bulls, especially when they are down, they come out physical and aggressive. I told them to be aggressive and protect themselves because we were leading and did not have to go after baskets like they did.”

The Bulls put up their best quarter in the fourth period with 19 points, mostly due to Franklyn catching fire late in the game. However, it was too little too late with some Bulls players already hanging their head in defeat and one even stopped playing offense or defense and had to be subbed off the court.

Franklyn scored 10 of his game-high 20 points in the fourth but had little help offensively by a tired-looking Bulls team.

The scoring came from all angles for Warriors with veteran Corey McDonald finishing with 12, Trevor Simmons had 11, Rasheed Harte 10, Ron Grant 9 and Richard Bennett and Akintunde Perry scoring 8 apiece.

The last words that Coach Bynoe said to the media after celebrating with his teamwas that he hoped that a double title was in the near future for the Warriors Premier League side, who would be looking to start their 2020 campaign early next year. (AS)

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