By TENAJH SWEETING
tsweeting@tribunemedia.net
THE Commonwealth Bank Giants will advance to NPBA championship finals after defeating the Sand Dollar Imports High Flyers 96-81 on Friday night at the A.F. Adderley Gymnasium.
In a game that got off to a slow start by both teams as the first quarter wrapped up 18-14 favouring the High Flyers, the CB Giants looked to take control coming out of halftime.
Despite the first half of the game being all Sand Dollar, the Giants took over in the third quarter, leading the game 70-61 going into the fourth.
Perry Thompson, head coach of the CB Giants, talked about the second half surge of his team. “It was more of a personal change than a gameplan, all season we have been getting off to relatively slow starts, our bench has been huge for us all year so our second quarters are historically better,” Thompson said.
Thompson was right as the Giants’ bench outscored the High Flyers 36 to 15.
Dylan Musgrove led the charge for the CB Giants as he was the game’s leading scorer with 23 points to go with four rebounds and two steals on the night. Musgrove was joined by Jackson Jacob who poured in 21 points to go with five assists and two steals.
Although Sand Dollar battled hard in the first half, the Giants were able to overcome a sluggish start. The winning team dominated the paint 58 to 42 on an efficient 62%. The High Flyers beat the Giants 20 to 19 in second chance points. However, the Giants got out and ran, leading to 35 fast break points compared to the High Flyers’ 21.
Musgrove talked about the team’s mindset on Friday night. “It feels good to get the W [win], we did not want to play a game three tomorrow and the mindset for us was to close this one out and that’s what we did,” he said.
The two teams split the regular season series 1-1, making them no strangers to each other.
Jackson credited the High Flyers team and coaching staff for competing hard with them. He added that he is thankful for being able to advance to the championships once again. The High Flyers had five players that scored double digits in the game with Rus-Shorn Strachan leading the way for the team with 20 points.
Donnie Culmer, head coach of the High Flyers, talked about how proud he is with the progress of his team despite the series loss.
Culmer said a loss is always disappointing but he told his guys it was always a three-year process but each year his team has progressed against the Giants.
He added that the team will require some fine tuning and tweaking but will be back next year.
He gave credit to the Giants for being a dominant team but emphasized that the High Flyers will be back and ready next year.
The CB Giants will look to dethrone the defending division one champions the Discount Distributors Liquors Rockets.
The Giants and Rockets are longtime foes as the two teams faced off at last year’s championships in which the Rockets swept the Giants 3-0. The two powerhouse teams will battle it out at A.F. Adderley Gymnasium at 9pm tonight.
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