The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Mr Ship It Freight Regulators were able to even their best-of-five championship series in the New Providence Basketball Association Division I.

The Regulators scored four points in the final 1:30 to surge ahead for the 78-77 win over the Mail Boat Cybots at AF Adderley Gymnasium on Wednesday night.

Miguel Mackey’s jumper with 34 seconds left to play proved to be the go-ahead score. The Cybots were unable to convert on their final possessions and regain the lead in the final seconds.

League leading scorer Eugene Bain finished with 28 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Regulators while Dion McPhee scored 13 and Gameliel Rose scored eight.

Livingston Munnings led the Cybots with 22 points and 21 rebounds. Ernest Saunders had 15 points and 10 assists, Dario Seymour scored 14 and Lerecus Armbrister chipped in with 13.

The Regulators survived a night where they shot just 36 per cent from the field, 18 per cent from three-point range and 55 per cent from the line. The Cybots outscored them in every category. However, the Regulators had the advantage in second-chance points (23-9) and bench points (25-18).

Setting the stage for the remainder of the game, the first quarter featured three ties and four lead changes as they struggled for an early edge.

Neither team led by more than nine points throughout the game.

Bain gave the Regulators an early 9-4 lead, their biggest of the first quarter. Cruz Simon made three free throws for a 14-10 Regulators lead, but failed to score over the final 2:24. Seymour and Munnings added late baskets to take a 14-14 tie at the end of the first.

The Regulators opened the second on an 8-1 run to open up their biggest lead of the game. McPhee’s layup made it 24-15 with 7:15 left to play in the half. Seymour stopped the run with a three pointer on the next possession. Munnings would add a layup and a three pointer on an ensuing possession for an 8-0 run. Armbrister would later connect with Munnings for an alley-oop and a 27-26 lead with just over three minutes left. Their lead reached as much as six, but they clung to a 34-32 lead at the half.

Tied at 36, Munnings gave the Cybots the lead for good for the remainder of the quarter. They led 52-48 headed into the fourth quarter.

The highest scoring quarter of the game, both teams combined for 75 points and the Regulators outscored the Cybots by five to seal the win. Seymour’s early three gave the Cybots an eight-point lead, 60-52 with 8:47 left to play. Two minutes later, the Regulators trimmed the deficit to just two, 62-60, but the Cybots strictly stretched the lead back to seven. Saunders made a pair of free throws to give Mail Boat a 75-66 lead with 3:43 left to play. Simon made a three on the next possession and sparked the 12-2 run to end the game for the Regulators. Dominique Beadle made a layup to give the Cybots an eight-point lead, 77-69, but again, the ended the final two minutes of a quarter scoreless. Robert Missick tipped a rebound in, Bain followed with a three and Missick added another tip in to pull within one – just before Mackey’s heroics.

Both the Division I and II series are tied 1-1 headed into tonight’s game threes.