By Neto Baptiste
There were wins for Flyers 2 and Rebels as they both take one-nil leads in their best of three Division 2 Playoffs series when games got on the way at the JSC basketball complex on Tuesday.
Playing in the opening game of a double-header in the Antigua and Barbuda Basketball Association (ABBA) competition, Flyers 2 edged Fearless Crew 65-64 in a close and exciting contest.
Flyers 2 got off to a good start, outscoring Fearless Crew 14-6 in the opening quarter. Flyers kept the momentum running in the second quarter to outscore their opponents 15-12 before Fearless Crew rebounded to claim the third and fourth quarters 18-16 and 28-20 respectively.
Donte Trimingham led the charge for Flyers 2 with a game-high of 27 points and eight rebounds. Javonte Daley and Craig Massiah also made significant contributions to the winning effort with 17 and 15 points each. Daley also grabbed six rebounds while Massiah bagged eight of his own.
In a losing effort, Rafiki Harris sank 25 points for Fearless Crew. Ronel Gomez and Romel Diggs both added 10 points.
In the feature contest, Rebels enjoyed a relatively comfortable 81-75 victory over Lower Ottos Warriors to claim the opening game of their there best of three series.
Rebels dominated the contest throughout, outscoring Warriors 17-8 in the first quarter, 17-15 in the third and 28-27 in the fourth. The teams were equally matched 22-22 in the second quarter.
Kareem Blair led the charge for Rebels with 24 points and 10 rebounds with contributions of 19 and 16 points coming from Buell Henry and Zuri Nesbitt respectively. Henry also grabbed a game-high of 19 rebounds.
In a losing effort, Lincoln Weekes had a game-high of 34 points while Ariel Quallis chipped in with 17 points and nine rebounds.
Game two in both series will be contested on Thursday night with the opening contest shooting off at 5:15 pm.
