Easily the best game of the tournament so far, Guinness Bar Lodge/Meadowbrook held on for a one-point 67-66 win against Western Union Plaisance/Vryheids Lust when the National Community Basketball League (NCBL) continued Thursday evening at the Burnham Hard Courts.
Evenly matched in all departments, the game between the two teams seemed like an easy victory for the Western Union-sponsored squad as they led 23-6 at the end of the first quarter.
However, Lodge/Meadowbrook slowly caught their rhythm as they started to hit their shots late in the second quarter making up some ground to end the first half at 27-16.
Out of the break the East Coast men turned up their defence to extend the halftime lead to 15 before going cold late in the third as the men sponsored by the Guinness Bar started to make a run, closing the lead to single digits as the third quarter ended.
In the final quarter, it was evident who the better team was as Lodge/Meadowbrook worked the ball around to find their open shooters to come out with the win while Plaisance/Vryheids Lust side depended on their two top players, Ryan Gullins and Stephon Gillis.
Dorian Lewis had 14 points while Fabian Johnson had 12 points for Lodge/Meadowbrook as Gillis and Gullins had 21 and 19 points respectively.
Earlier in the evening, Gizmos and Gadgets West Ruimveldt blew away the West Side Boys by 20 points as the game ended 62-42.
The boys from the west side just seemed out of sync and seemed to have run out of fuel early as the game was a total mismatch. West Ruimveldt outplayed the team in every facet.
Owen Walton had 19 points for the West Ruimveldt while Warren Oudkerk contributed 18 to the win.
Meanwhile the tournament will move to the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall next Tuesday when the National Community Basketball League (NCBL) continues.
