The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Coach Perry Thompson knew that once his Commonwealth Bank Giants kept the ball out of the hands of the Police Crimestoppers’ guard Mitchell Johnson, they would be back to defend their title in the New Providence Basketball Association’s championship series.

Coach Wayde Watson felt that as long as his Mail Boat Cybots tightened up on their entire defense, they could get past the Real Deal Shockers and return for another chance to claim the title that got away from them last year.

What neither coach anticipated was a three-game sweep over their rivals in the best-of-five semifinals of the postseason that was switched from the CI Gibson Gym to the newly refurbished AF Adderley Gym and concluded on Saturday night.

Now Thompson and his Giants are getting ready to face Watson and his Cybots in what many are anticipating should live up to the hype of the championship series. The Giants are looking for their fourth straight title.

“You hear a lot of people talking about the three-peat, but it’s very rare that you hear somebody winning four consecutive championships,” he said. “So that’s the goal we had coming into the season and that is what we are going after.”

Giants sweep Crimestoppers

“It was something that we talked about. We just didn’t want to give these guys any opportunity to get back into it,” Thompson said. “Once they get a part of the series, it could fall anyway. So the guys stepped up to the plate.

“Fernly took the challenge to go head-to-head with Mitch and we gave him whatever help he needed, but it was a total team effort. I’m really happy and proud that we came out with the sweep because it was something that we talked about and we came through with it.”

In the clincher on Saturday night, Commonwealth Bank won 82-73 as Michael Bain scored 23 points with eight assists and five rebounds. Jeffrey Henfield had 20 points and Mark Hanna contributed 13 points with 10 rebounds.

“We came out a little flat because we had the late game last night, but we came out with the mind set to sweep these guys and we pulled it off,” Bain said.

As for his unselfish role of taking on the responsibility of guarding Johnson, Bain said it was all about the team concept.

“He’s a good player and the key to their offense, so we set a lot of traps and double teams on him and not allowing him to have his way off the picks,” Bain said. “We just have to keep the guys off the break like we did against the Police and we will be okay.”

For the Police, who only led once in the game at 20-20 at the end of the first quarter, Vernon Stubbs scored 21 points with seven rebounds and playing against his former team-mates, Jeremy Hutchinson had 15 points and 13 rebounds.

“It was good. It was an experience playing against them, even though we still play together off the court and we still stay in contact with each other,” Hutchinson said. “We have to keep it competitive to make it a good series.

“The last two games we just beat ourselves because every time we made a run and came within two or three points, we take off the defense and the Giants make another run and things just get out of hand and the players got frustrated. We just have to come back bigger and better next year.”

The victory came one day after the Giants took a 97-86 victory in game two on Friday night. In that encounter, Bain again led the attack with 20 points, seven rebounds, six assists and five steals. Gamaliel Rose added 21 points with 12 rebounds, Ricardo Pierre had 18 points, six rebounds and four steals, Henfeild had 13 points and Denykco Bowles chipped in with 10.

The Police got a game high 27 points with 12 rebounds from Hutchinson; Stubbs and Mitch Johnson both had 19 and Freddie Lightbourne had 11.

The Giants also won 91-81 in game one. In that game, Rose set the tone with a game high 27 points and 12 rebounds, Jackson Jacob had 22 and Bain 12.

Hutchinson led the Police with 24 points and 12 rebounds, Dion McPhee had 19 points and six rebounds and Stubbs finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Cybots sweep Shockers

“We have a goal. Our goal is to hold teams down to at least 70 points,” coach Watson said. “Every team in this league averages about 110 points and in this series we were able to hold this division one team to under 70 points.

“In the first series we did it and we did it in this series too. Now we hope that we can do it against the Giants. But we know they are a much better offensive team, so we have to wait and see how they respond to our defense.”

Completing their sweep over the Real Deal, the Mail Boat won game three 76-68, despite not having both Nelson ‘Mandella’ Joseph and Eugene Bain not in uniform and Watson arriving late after coaching the Super Value Cybots Queens to a 64-63 loss to the Career Building Lady Cheetahs in game one of their New Providence Women’s Basketball Association semifinal playoffs at the DW Davis Gym.

Brian Bain, although he only played 21 minutes and 44 seconds, had 13 points to lead the attack, while Kyle Clarke had a big game with 10 points and 15 rebounds. David Taylor also had 10 points with 10 rebounds, Ahmad Bootle had nine points and seven rebounds and both Jermaine Storr and Robert Missick had eight points with Missick adding 10 rebounds.

“We did what we were supposed to do on defense and we communicated very well together as a team,” Storr said. “We shared the ball the way we should and we came out with the win and now we’re back in the championship. We now just have to take it one game at a time and take care of our responsibilities.”

In the loss, Devon Brennen had a game high 17 points with eight rebounds, Ahmad Baker had 16 points, Floyd Armbrister contributed 12 points before he left the game due to unsportsmanlike conduct and Wilfred Culmer chipped in with 10 points.

The Cybots took game two on Friday night 91-89 as Eugene Bain had 27 points, nine rebounds and four steals. Ahmad Bootle had 16 points, Brian Bain and David Taylor had 13 each and Ernest Saunders had 11 points.

Floyd Armbrister had 16 points and six rebounds, Devon Brennen and Devardo Williams had 14 each, Corey Williams had 13 points and six rebounds and Anthony Williams added 12 points with 16 rebounds for the Police in the loss.

In game one on Wednesday, the Cybots won 85-69 as Eugene Bain powered in a game high 22 points with seven rebounds, Brian Bain had 12 points and both Ahmad Bootle and Ernest Saunders had 10 points apiece.

Devon Brennen scored 17 points to lead the losers. Both Corey Williams and Randy Ferguson had 10 ponts with six and five rebounds respectively and Floyd Armbrister added nine points with 10 rebounds.