The Tribune

WITH all two game sweeps of their best-of-three semifinal series over the weekend at the AF Adderley Gymnasium, the stage is now set for the New Providence Basketball Association’s best-of-five championship series in both the men’s division one and II.

Over the weekend, as the league resumed play for the first time in over a year, Your Essential Store Giants routed the Maintenance Asphalt Pirates 95-76 and 120-82 in their half of the division II semis and will face the Sun Oil Rockets, who advanced with their 101-86 and 81-63 decisions over the Leno Eagles Nest.

As for division one, the Commonwealth Bank Giants swept aside the Breezes High Flyers 89-62 and 92-85 to advance to the finals to face the Discount Distributors Rockets, who eliminated the University of the Bahamas Mingoes 101-58 and 102-81.

On Friday, the Rockets and the Giants will square off in game one of their division II best-of-five championship at 7 pm, while the Giants and the Rockets will meet in the division one feature contest at 8:30 pm.

Game two for division II will be played on Sunday at 4 pm, followed by the division one at 5:30 pm. They will resume play over the Easter holiday weekend with game three in both series at the same time on Thursday, April 14 and Saturday, April 16th at 7 pm and 8:30 pm.

If necessary, the fifth and deciding games will be played on Friday, April 22nd.

The league, headed by James Price, resumed its competition on Thursday after taking a break because of Covid-19.

But instead of starting the 2022/23 regular season, the league wanted to complete its 2019/2020 season.

Teams which had lost players due to work or other commitments were allowed to draft up to four players, all of whom would not have been on a roster during the season in play.

Here’s a summary of the games played over the weekend:

Giants 120, Pirates 82: As they wrapped up their division II series on Saturday, Dylan Musgrove erupted for a game high 28 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals to lead Your Essential Store.

Kirklyn Farrington added 18 points with four steals and three assists; Anderias Black had 17 points and 125 rebounds; Edward Williams had 12 points, 12 rebounds and four assists and Michael Turnquest added 10 points and three assists.

Maintenance Asphalt got 21 points from Kamal Murphy, who also had six rebounds and five assists. De’Joan Sturrup had 11 points and two steals and Antonio Hanna (two steals), Jefferson Oliver (five rebounds and two steals) and Qyemah Gibson (seven rebounds, two assists and two blocks) all had nine points.

Giants 95, Pirates 76: In the opener of their division II series on Thursday night, YES had five players in double figures as Anderias Black exploded for 21 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks and a pair of steals.

Brandon Strachan followed with 16 points, 12 rebounds, three steals, two assists and two blocks; Dylan Musgrove came through with 15 points and three rebounds; Kirkland Farrington had 14 points, six rebounds and four assists and Edward Williams ended up with 10 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Antonio Hanna had 12 points, two rebounds and an assist to pace Maintenance Asphalt, Sherman Marshall had 11 points, four rebounds and three assists and both De’Joan Sturrup (five rebounds) and Marcian Higgins helped out with nine points.

Rockets 81, Eagles Nest 63: Bertrum Minns had 22 points and 16 rebounds to lead Sun Oil as they clinched their division II series on Sunday with a two-game sweep.

Lerecus Armbrister added 20 points with nine rebounds and three assists and Kevin Thompson had 14 points, two rebounds and as many steals.

In a losing effort for Leno, Donte Deveaux had a game high 29 points with 11 rebounds and two steals and Jonaldo Joseph chipped in with 21 points, 13 rebounds and two assists.

Rockets 101, Eagles Nest 86: Game one of this series on Friday saw Lerecus Armbrister explode for a game high 26 points with five steals, four rebounds and two assists to pace Sun Oil.

Bertrum Minns helped out with 20 points, 19 rebounds, two assists and steals and a block shot; Rumalo Ellis had 12 points and seven rebounds and Torez Bastian added nine points with 17 rebounds.

Leno got 21 apiece from Donte Deveaux (seven rebounds and two steals) and Jonaldo Joseph (12 rebounds).

Tyrell Butler added 16 points with five rebounds and four assists and steals; Johnacy Augustin had 15 points, eight rebounds, five steals and three assists and Bradley Altidor had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Giants 92, High Flyers 85: Jackson Jacob poured in a game high 29 points with six rebounds to pace Commonwealth Bank as they completed the sweep of their division one series on Saturday.

Michael Bain Jr had 23 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and three steals; Adam Johnson had 15 points and nine rebounds and Jeffrey Henfield had eight points and three rebounds.

Jeremy Neely led a balanced scoring attack in the loss with 19 points, six rebounds and five assists; Dale Davis had 16 points and nine rebounds; Rus-Shorn Strachan had 16 points and six rebounds; Devontae Gibson had 11 points and nine rebounds, Dimargio Taylor had 11 points and Justin Gardiner had 10 points and seven rebounds.

Giants 89, High Flyers 62: Jackson Jacob produced 22 points with two assists and two steals to lead Commonwealth Bank in their division one opener on Thursday.

Michael Bain Jr had 19 points, 10 assists, seven rebounds and two assists and steals each; Jeffrey Henfield had 13 points, nine rebounds and two assists; Brian Bain (three rebounds and assists) and Renardo Baillou (11 rebounds and three assists) both had eight and Avery Walker (three rebounds) and D’Shon Taylor both contributed six points.

For Breezes, Devontae Gibson had 14 points and three rebounds; Jeremy Neely had 13 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists and steals and Enrico Bethel had 12 points and two rebounds

Rockets 102, Mingoes 81: Livingstone Munnings’ 31 points and 15 rebounds was more than enough to help the Discount Distributors to seal the deal in the sweep of their division one semifinals on Sunday.

Able Joseph made sure they got through as he added 26 points with 12 rebounds, nine assists, three steals and a block. Roosevelt Whylly had 21 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Devon Ferguson had eight points, eight rebounds and three assists and Dencel Knowles added eight points with a pair of rebounds and blocks.

Christoff McKenzie led the University of the Bahamas with 20 points and eight rebounds; Theodore Grant had 15 points, five rebounds and five assists; Daniel Hall had 14 points and five rebounds and Erquantae Edgecombe had 11 points and seven rebounds.

Rockets 101, Mingoes 58: Game one of their series was literally over before it got started as Ernest Saunders paced the Discount Distributors with a game high 31 points with seven steals and five rebounds.

Roosevelt Whylly had 26 points,15 rebounds and four assists; Able Joseph had 19 points, 12 rebounds, nine steals and six assists and Devon Ferguson finished with 14 points, 11 rebounds and two steals.

In a losing effort, Timothy Grant paced the University of the Bahamas with 15 points and four rebounds; Christoff McKenzie had 12 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and a block and Dremiko McIntosh added 10 points and two rebounds.

• Best-of-five championship series:

Friday,

7 pm Pirates vs Giants (DII).

8:30 pm Rockets vs Giants (D1).

Sunday, April 10

4 pm Pirates vs Giants (DII).

5:30 pm Rockets vs Giants (D1).