Storm, Horizon to play for top honours in Basketball Winter League
With five wins each, Waves and defending champion Horizon were expected to win their semi-final matches against Storm and Rivers, respectively, but it was not to be in matches of the Caribbean Basketball Winter League at the National Arena on Friday.
Storm handed Waves a tough overtime two-point loss (115-113) and will now play Horizon in the final set for 8:00 pm today. In the second semi-final, Horizon battered the winless Rivers 112-87. Rivers will now play the Waves in a third-place play-off match set for 6:00 pm.
The day’s activities will actually start at 2:00 pm with several exhibition matches, including games between the high school girls and boys teams.
Meanwhile, the Waves-Storm match was full of non-stop action in every quarter, including the five-minute overtime, with the lead changing constantly between the teams. The biggest lead in the match was the six-point lead by Waves over Storm at the end of the third quarter, which Storm quickly erased in the second minute of the last quarter.
The teams left everything that they had on the court and was spent at the end of the match, with Waves left to rue their chance of playing in the final against defending champion Horizon. The quarter scores were 23-24, 54-50, 80-74, 105-105, and overtime score of 113-115.
The top scorer for Waves was Cameron Burhannon (58), while Brandon BDot Armstrong led for Storm with 32.
Coach of Storm Oneil Brown was elated at the end: “I must commend my team [as] they played their hearts out, trust the process.”
On the other hand, Waves Coach Rohan Robinson blame poor preparation for the defeat, saying, “If we cannot get a chance to prepare ourselves, [then] wi not gonna get through.”