By Neto Baptiste
In a close and entertaining encounter, Flyers Basketball successfully defended their Playoffs title with a close 83-80 triumph in game four of their best of five series against rivals Northside Stingerz when they met at the JSC basketball complex on Thursday night.
Going into the anticipated showdown, Stingerz needed a win to keep their title hopes alive, with Flyerz leading the series 2-1.
Flyers claimed a closely contested first quarter by just one point, outscoring Stingerz 26-25 before Stingerz had the better second half, outscoring Flyers 21-13. Flyers however rebounded to take the third and fourth quarters 23-19 and 21-15 respectively to claim the three-point win and lift the sought after playoffs title.
Playoffs MVP, Xavier Meade, was the top performer for Flyers with 19 points and four rebounds, while Adonis Humphreys contributed with 17 points and 10 rebounds. There were 15 points each for Kenya Achom and David Hernandez in the winning effort.
Coach of the Flyers team, George Hughes, said he sounded a stern warning to his players prior to the contest.
“I made a proclamation in the camp that we were struggling with the zone, and I made certain decisions and certain rules and if you weren’t following the rules you’d come and sit besides me, so everybody was quite attentive, and those who wanted to stay on the court followed the rules; that’s how I explained it, and I was able to get their attention because the bench is a great motivator,” he said.
For Stingerz, Joshua Minner had a game high of 30 points while grabbing seven rebounds. He was assisted by Kareem Edwards with 21 points and four rebounds off the bench. Jayden Andrew had a credible performance with 11 points.
Hughes spoke highly of the opposition, predicting that they will be a force to be reckoned with in the near future.
“They are going to be champions and it might be at our peril eventually, because they are coming. They are a young squad so we are trying to get as many as possible before they get it together because at some point, the mantle has to be passed on to somebody else,” he said.
Flyers had claimed the first two games of the series, taking game one by a similar three-point margin, winning 78-75. The back-to-back champions then claimed game two, 87-75, before Stingerz won game three 76-58 to avoid a three-game sweep.
