The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Once again, Brian “Tucker” Bain came through with the clutch pair of free throws down the stretch as the Mail Boat Cybots held off the Commonwealth Bank Giants 101-99 at the AF Adderley Gym Thursday night to secure their second New Providence Basketball Association championship title, adding to their first crown in 2009.

The Cybots rebounded from a 23-point deficit, 75-52, with four minutes left in the third quarter as they found the resilience when it counted the most in the fourth quarter to overpower the defending champions Giants as Bain came through with a big steal and lay-up for a 99-99 tie with 11.8 seconds before he sinked the final two free throws with 2.3 on the clock.

Bain’s heroics came after Jackson “Action” Jacob missed a pair of charity shots at the 10.3 mark that could have sealed the deal for the Giants. Instead, Bain and the Cybots went on to secure a 4-1 advantage to emerge as the champions, erasing the painful memory of last year when they blew a 2-1 lead as the Giants stormed back to win their third straight crown.

“That’s what I do. That’s what I get paid to do. I get paid to make the big shots,” said Bain about his second consecutive pair of free throws, following on the heels of their 95-94 decision that pushed them in the driver’s seat with a 3-1 edge on Monday night when he fouled on an attempted game winning basket.

As they wiped away the Giants’ 23-point lead, Bain said he knew it would only be a matter of time before his Mail Boat team-mates put themselves in a position to win the game.

“It feels good. I want to thank God for giving us the victory. The Giants came back last year and beat us three straight to win the title. All summer we were hurt,” said Bain, who ended up with 18 points. “This year, we were just a little bit better.”

While they added some youthful legs to their roster this year, veteran Nelson “Mandella” Joseph mustered his way inside for a side high 23 points. Eugene Bain helped out with 20 points and 13 rebounds, Jermaine Storr had 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists and Ernest Saunders ended up with 13 points and seven assists.

In what he expects to be his final season, Joseph went out in grand style as he collected the most valuable player award after he fouled out with 1:31 as Jeffrey Henfield converted a pair of free throws to push Commonwealth Bank up 98-91.

“This was great. We were down and I believed everyone in the gym came up on us,” Joseph said. “But our motto is ‘Cybots never say die’ and so we kept on fighting and to God be the glory, we came back to win the title. Nobody expected us to come back, but that’s how God had it planned for us.”

And Eugene Bain, who fouled out with 31.8 seconds as Gamaliel Rose also missed his two free throws that also could have extended the Giants lead to 100-95, said fate was on their side.

“We just came back strong this year after the Giants sweep us last year,” Bain said. “We never kept ourselves down, even after we fell behind. We knew we were in a better position than them because we had the fresher young legs. So we fought hard and got back into the game and pulled off the win.”

The win was so sweet that coach Wayde Watson said it more than made up for their disappointment last year.

“We worked hard. They took a big lead on us, but we knew that if we got back into it in the fourth quarter, we stood a chance to in,” Watson said. “We had a lot of guys on the bench resting, so I knew that once we regained our composure, we had a chance because they were tired. We were running them man-to-man all night and it was only a matter of time before they made some mental errors.”

In a losing effort, Gamaliel Rose scored a game high 25 points with 13 rebounds, Jeffrey Henfield had 21 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals, Michael Bain was held to 20 points with eight rebounds and six assists and Mark Hanna contributed 15 points with four rebounds.

“It happens in basketball. Sometimes the momentum goes and it swings to the other team. Our guards couldn’t handle the pressure and we made some crucial turnovers,” Hanna said. “For me at this age, I really wanted this one. But I just have to go back this summer and work harder to get it back next year.”

Hanna said the Cybots just proved to be the better team.

“I don’t mind losing to a team like the Cybots because I know they have an excellent coach, who worked them very hard,” Hanna said. “They also have some young players whom I helped to coach at CI Gibson like David Taylor and Jermaine Storr, so it was a bitter-sweet series for me.”

After falling behind 22-20 at the end of the first quarter, the Giants surged to a 51-40 advantage at the half and despite blowing their 23-point lead, held on to a 78-63 margin at the final break.

But Commonwealth Banks’ coach Perry Thompson said they simply let the game get away from them.

“We didn’t hold the lead when we had it. But we knew it was going to be close down the stretch,” Thompson said. “We had some tough calls against us, but we also missed some crucial free throws. Hats off to the Giants. They knew what happened last year and they didn’t want us to repeat that. They played aggressive and did what they had to do to win.”

As they now go back to the drawing board over the summer, Thompson said they will definitely be making some changes to their roster.

“We have to look at some younger players, especially a point guard and some forwards. It’s definitely going to be a different team next year, no doubt about it,” he said. “We will get better and hopefully we will get another chance to get back to the finals to regain our title.”

As the new champions, the Cybots will now prepare to travel to Grand Bahama next month to represent the league in the Bahamas Basketball Federation’s National Round Robin Championship.

With the season complete, the league also released the winners of their special awards this year.

The MVP of the regular season was Lenny Oscar of the Double L Cleaners. He was also the scoring champion with an average of 33.3 points per game. The rebounding champion was Adorn Charlow of the Premium Food Rockets with 15.1 rebounds per game.

The assists title was shared by Adrian Miller of the Giants and Freddy Lightbourne of the RBPF Crimestoppers with 6.1 apg.

Moses Johnson of the Woodside Petroleum Conquerors was the Coach of the Year.

Named to the All-NPBA First Team were: Shooting guard - Michael Bain (Commonwealth Bank Giants); center - Adorn Charlow (Premium Food Rockets); point guard - Lenny Oscar (Double L Cleaners); small forward - Mitchell Johnson (RBPF Crimestoppers) and power forward - Gamaliel Rose (Commonwelth Bank Giants).

Named to the All-NPABA Second Team were: Shoot guard - Lorenzo Carter (BTC Digitals); center - Eugene Bain (Mail Boat Cybots); point guard - Floyd Armbrister (Real Deal Shockers); small forward - Abel Joseph (Woodside Petroleum Conquerors) and power forward - Bathlette LaFleur (PJ Stingers).