By Neto Baptiste
Old Road Daggers and Da Project got off to winning starts in their respective Division 2 playoff series on Wednesday when action continued in the Antigua and Barbuda Basketball Association (ABBA) competition at the JSC basketball complex.
Contesting the opening game of a double-header, Daggers enjoyed a six-points win over Spanish Heat 2, claiming the contest 81-75. The round-south men outscored Spanish Heat 17-13 in the first quarter before Spanish Heat rebounded well to outscore Daggers 23-12 in the second quarter and 24-19 in the third. A strong fourth quarter push by Daggers to outscore their opponents 33-15, however, sealed the game-one triumph.
Craig Thomas was the best performer for Daggers with 23 points and seven rebounds while Kelvin “Shugy” Simon sank 22 points and grabbed 16 rebounds. Jesus Lopez contributed with 15 points and eight rebounds.
In a losing effort, Jesus Emmanuel top-scored with 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds for Spanish Heat, while Kevin Pimental and Rohland Hamilton contributed with 17 and 16 points respectively. Hamilton also grabbed 15 rebounds.
Meanwhile, in a low-scoring affair, Da Project defeated Court Martials 46-29 to take a one-nil lead in their best of three playoffs series.
The game, however, ended prematurely after referees were forced to call off the contest in the third quarter when Court Martials’ Regillio Cisse refused to leave the bench after he was ejected. After several failed attempts by both the match officials and his teammates to have the player leave the bench, the contest was discontinued, handing Da Project the crucial game-one triumph.
Da Project had outscored Court Martials in all three quarters contested with scores of 17-14 in the first, 22-12 in the second and 7-3 in the third.
Bryan “Hollywood” Matthew led the scoring for Da Project with 18 points while grabbing eight rebounds. There was a contribution of 14 points and nine rebounds from Tyler Jacobs. In a losing effort, De-Lornge Jules top scored for Court Martials with nine points.
Game two in both series will be contested on Saturday with the opening contest, Old Road Daggers vs. Spanish Heat 2, set to shoot off at 6:45pm.
