By Carlena Knight
When the dust settled on Wednesday night, only four teams stood tall and will play in the semi-finals on Saturday of the Cool and Smooth Business League Basketball tournament.
Playing at the JSC Sports Complex, defending champions, Antigua and Barbuda Transport Board, APUA Head Office, former champions, Kennedy’s and Anjo Wholesale were the four teams that advanced.
Transport Board trounced Pointe FM, 86-64, with skippers Marlon “Buju” Charles and Bryan “Hollywood” Matthew each scoring 27.
Teammate, Kareem “Macky” Edwards chipped in, sinking 16.
Pointe’s Felix Hamilton had 15 points while teammate Kwame Brathwaite made 13.
Former champions Kennedys, unlike Transport Board, edged out Sandals 55-54 in the nail-biter affair.
Xavier “Xman” Meade led the charge for the victors by banking 18 with assistance from Adriel Ramirez, who netted 12.
Sandals’ Devorn Benjamin had 16 points while teammates Keroi “Dragon” Lee, Adissa “Rass-i” Harris and Raviel Burton contributed scoring 12, 11 and 10 points, respectively.
APUA Head Office and Anjo Wholesale both recorded comfortable wins as Head Office thrashed Fitzroy’s Rewinding Transformers, 65-49, while Anjo had the better of newbies, Area 51 Invaders, 57-48.
Delornje Jules had a game high 37 points for Head Office while Eric Joseph banked 13 for Transformers.
Sharife Sergeant, Steven Matthew and Andrew “Puss” Venture all scored 11 for Anjo while Teon Joseph made 14 for Invaders.
The semi-finals, which will also follow a knockout format on Saturday at JSC, will see Anjo Wholesale face Kennedy’s at 7 pm while, at 8 pm, Transport Board will battle APUA Head Office
The best of three finals is expected to shoot off on Monday.