Eagles and Republic Bank Nets won the U23 and second division tournaments of the Guyana Amateur basketball Association defeating Pacesetters and Pepsi Sonics 2-0 respectively in their best of three finals Sunday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Eagles claimed the U23 championships after surviving a final quarter onslaught from Pacesetters to prevail 81-75.
Entering the match on the back of a 95-86 overtime win, Eagles saw their 63-52 lead at the end of the third quarter reduced to two points as Pacesetters launched a 10-2 run, pushing the score to 65-63 at 7:22.
Eagles’s 7-4 run saw them ahead 72-66 with 4:35s remaining but the matchup took a further twist as Pacesetters outhustled Eagles 9-5 to close in at 75-77 with 1:10s remaining. However, that proved to be the closest Pacesetters came to overturning the score as Eagles scored four unanswered points to claim the title. In that period, Darrel Williams scored six points while Kevin Higgins and Travis Belgrave netted four points each.
For Pacesetters, Nathan Saul and Jaleel Duke scored 13 and seven points respectively. Belgrave top scored in the win with 23 points while Williams and Higgins netted 15 and 13 points correspondingly.
For the runners-up, Duke and Saul netted 23 points each while Quincy Dos Santos scored nine points. Eagles had seized the advantage as they outshot Pacesetters 19-17 in the first period.
Eagles then built on their slender lead, netting 17 points to their foe’s 15 points to go into the half time break ahead at 36-32.
Their four point lead quickly became an 11-point cushion as Eagles recorded 27 points to Pacesetters’ 20 in the high-scoring third period, setting up the fixture’s eventual end in the process.
Meanwhile, Nets downed fierce rival Sonics 54-42 with Dorion Lewis top scoring with 18 points while Hodayah Stewart and Mortimer Williams chipped in with 13 and 10 points respectively.
For Sonics, Jason Squires netted 15 points while Kerwin Jackson and Earl O’Neil chipped in with five points each. The first period witnessed Sonics taking the early lead as they outscored Nets 13-10. Sonics maintained their lead going into the half time interval as the second stanza was a carbon copy of the first with Sonics netting 13 points and Nets scoring 10 points to end 23-20.
The low scoring nature of the contest continued in the third period as Sonics outshot Nets 12-10 to claim a 35-30 lead heading into the final period.
The momentum of the contest changed sides in the fourth period as Nets recorded a decent 24 points while restricting Sonics to seven points to clinch the win.
