Braves command playoff finals

Hands Up Foundation (HUF) Baldwin Braves took command of the Antigua & Barbuda Basketball Association (ABBA) Playoff Finals on Thursday, winning game three of their five-game series against Flyers 88-80 at the JSC basketball complex.
The 88-80 victory puts Braves 2-1 up in the series and in a position to take the title in Sunday’s game four.
Braves won all but the first quarter in which they were outscored 25-20 by Flyers.
The Gray’s Farm team however rebounded in the second quarter to outscore their opponents 23-15, before having similar success in the third quarter by a 23-18 margin. The fourth and final quarter was tied 22-22.
Xavier Meade led the way for Braves with a double-double, scoring 28 points and 10 rebounds.
Former national player and captain of the Braves team, Lennox McCoy, warns that his team has found their rhythm in the series.
“The score really didn’t indicate what it was supposed to have been last night (Thursday) because they made a little run in the [fourth] quarter but if it had not been for that, they would have gotten blown out. They don’t have any match for the big three, none whatsoever. We’re not going into game 4 like it’s do or die but we definitely don’t want to play a game five,” he said.
According to the former professional player, they now have a solid game-plan that could see them closing out the series in five games.
“We know there is a mismatch with X-man [Xavier Meade] and he is probably the MVP of the whole playoff because he has raised his game to a different level along with Debble and Duck-man and all the other guys so we realize that we have something we can go to that they can’t match,” he said.
“When we start to go to X-man and Dragon and we see there is a matchup there that they can’t handle because they went to man-mark and after they went to man they went to zone [defense] then that tells us that we start to control the series and he has to adjust to us,” he added.
Russel Daley led the charge for Flyers with 19 points and 4 assists.
Meanwhile, Ottos Coolers defeated Old Road Daggers 67-56 to take the 3rd Division playoff finals 3-1 when they met also on Thursday at the JSC basketball complex.
Game 5 in the Braves vs. Flyers series is slated for Sunday at 7pm.