By Samuel Peters
Ottos Full Throttle and Potters Steelers collected wins on the opening night of the Best of Three Playoffs in the Antigua and Barbuda Basketball Association at the JSC Sports Complex.
The second encounter of the evening, Full Throttle came from behind to sizzle out the Spanish Heat with a 73-70 victory as Marlon Davis, Warren Bogle, Akeem Davis and Allister Nibbs scored 17, 15,15 and 13 points respectively to help Ottos go up one nil in the series.
A game high of 29 points was scored by Heat’s Steven Matthew while Damian Floyd had 13 points. Heat won the first three quarters 23-13, 40-37 and 57-49 but were upstaged in the final quarter as Throttle turned up the pressure on Heat by scoring 24 points in the final quarter as opposed to the 13 points scored by their opponents to win the game 73-70.
The first match between Potters Steelers and All Saints Slam saw the former winning easily, not giving Slam even a whiff at the chance to post a possible comeback.
The first quarter was won by the Steelers 26-6, the second 49-21, the third 75-41 and the final score was 85-63. Humroy Wright top-scored for the Steelers with 13 points while teammate Damian Azille had 11 points along with Marlon Charles.
For the losing side, both Judah Ferris and Kim Casey had 13 points each.
The second round of the series will be contested on Sunday night at the JSC Sports Complex with Full Throttle and Spanish Heat playing at 6:45pm, while Steelers will take on Slam at 8:30.