The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

COACH Wadye Watson said it’s always important to set the tune in a championship series by winning the opening game.

On Monday night at the AF Adderley Gymnasium, the Mailboat Cybots exploded past the Commonwealth Bank Giants 100-93 to take a 1-0 lead in the New Providence Basketball Association men’s best-of-seven championship series.

Eugene Bain erupted for a game high 35 points with 17 rebounds to lead four other Cybots in double figures. Mitch Bain had 18 points, Ernest Saunders 14, David Taylor had 13 points and Brian ‘Tucker’ Bain 10 points as they came from a 23-16 deficit after the first quarter and 47-40 at the half.

The Giants, who were outscored 35-23 in the third quarter as they fell behind 75-70 at the end of the final break, got 22 points and six rebounds from Jackson Jacob, 21 points and nine rebounds from Mark Hanna, 13 points and 17 rebounds from Gamalial Rose and 12 points and six rebounds from Jeremy Hutchinson.

“We really wanted to win the first game in the series,” said Watson after the victory. “We will have a walk through before the second game to see what we can mitigate them taking such a big lead in the game. We really don’t want to have to come from behind like we did in game one.”

But Watson said he knew that they could count on Eugene Bain to get his points as their best offensive player and top rebounder. But he wanted to get the other players like Brian, Mitch and Ernest to continue to do their thing for players like Kenneth (Pratt) and Jermaine (Storr) and David (Taylor) to make it happen on the defensive end.

“We can’t do it all on the offensive end, so once we can step up our defence, we will be okay,” he said. “One of things that I am concerned about is not allowing the Giants to score more than 80 points. That’s our goal. We don’t want them to score more than 10 points per quarter and we haven’t been successful in doing that. We can do it. We just have to focus on it and make that our commitment.”

It’s a tall order, considering that Commonwealth Bank has a lot of offensive weapons. But Giants coach Perry Thompson said they will have to step it up a little more in game two, slated for 8pm tonight.

“We talked about it, but we only follow the game plan for the first half of the ball game, which is unfortunate because of the planning we put into preparing for the game,” Thompson said. “We just have to be more focused and disciplined in controlling the ball game.

“We have to go to our strength just as they utilise their strength. As long as we continue to provide the concentration level that we need, we will be able to bounce back. But the guys can’t be selfish. Those are the things that we need to talk about if we are going to win.”

On top of that, Thompson said they will have to limit their turnovers, after giving up 18 in game one, compared to the Cybots’ 14. They also got outrebounded 39-35, but shot better from the field.