Ovals punish Braves as Flyers soar in Division One basketball

Former champions, Ovals Ojays, pushed their record in Division 1 of the Antigua and Barbuda Basketball Association (ABBA) league competition to 8 wins and 1 loss following an 87-83 victory over defending champions HUF Baldwin Braves on Sunday night at the JSC basketball complex.
The former champions were led by Mahijah Davis with 15 points while Bryan “Hollywood” Matthew and Joel Mackintosh both contributed 14 points. Matthew also had seven rebounds while Mackintosh grabbed five boards.
There were also contributions of 10 points each from Mario Davis and Jermaine Bolden.
Matthew, following the welcomed victory, said his team continues to improve with every game.
“It’s a growing process and I can see growth every game that we play and last night was nothing less than that. Last night [Sunday] manifested itself great. The physicality of the game last night [Sunday] and we had a very tough practice session in the week being physical as well so it sort of just helped up to play into what we had in the week but it’s good because we are playing a little better and we are growing game by game,” he said.
In a losing effort, Xavier Meade sank 27 points, pulled six rebounds and had five steals for Braves while Lennox “Termite” McCoy picked up 22 points, seven rebounds and seven assists.
In Sunday’s other match-up, Flyers made light work of Freetown Travelers, winning the contest by a 92-53 margin when they met also at JSC.
The victory was Flyers’ seventh of the league while they have lost twice.
Central Basketball Association player, Torey Fassett, led the charge for Flyers as he sank 23 points and snatched eight rebounds. He was assisted by Kwame Brathwaite who had 16 points and 8 rebounds.
Coach of the Flyers team and former national coach, George Hughes, said the team has been performing well even without one of its main starters who has been out with an injury for some time now.
“I am actually proud of the guys because we had a catastrophic injury to one of our best players in Adonis Humphreys and we’re able to hold it together because he hasn’t come back yet and it has been about six weeks now and he hasn’t come back but we have managed to hold it together. Hopefully he will be back in maybe a week or two.
He practiced on Saturday but I still decided to hold him out for last night’s [Sunday’s] game,” he said.
Humroy Wright top scored for Travelers with 19 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and tossed three assists. He was assisted by Marlon Davis who hit 17 points and had five assists.