NFM, Unit Trust Pacers win b-ball crowns

National Flour Mills (NFM) and the Unit Trust Maloney Pacers emerged winners of the revamped National Basketball Championships.

This after they beat the Pacers men and Courts Horizon women respectively on Thursday at the St Paul’s Street Sport Facility in Port-of-Spain. In Game Three of their Big Four Finals series, the newly crowned kings and queens of Trinidad and Tobago basketball put in impressive efforts against determined opposition. With two teams in the finals Pacers were almost assured of a title and as their  rhythm section queued up one could feel the tension build on the court. And in the end a frantic rhythm permeated the air as Pacers women emerged 60-56 winners. Denied an early rest by Horizon when they knotted up the series 1-1 on Tuesday, Pacers took the court with business in mind but it was Horizon who ended the first quarter leading 14-9 and set the pace at half leading 28-20. The turning point came at the end of the third period when Pacers fought back to a 38-38 tie, aided by Melissa Guerero’s game-high 22 points, an effort which included two assists and nine rebounds.

Mahalia Simpson was the other notable Pacer contributor with 11 points, four assists and five rebounds as she gave her team an extra push. Horizon’s Chezelle Griffith amassed 21 points and 18 rebounds in a superb centre effort to keep her team in the match. Philomena George with 14 points and six rebounds and Sasha James, who put in nine points, an assist and a rebound could not curb the fury with which Pacers pursued the coveted title. The trend in these Big Four finals followed with one Pacer team emerging victorious and the other falling just short of glory. The Pacer men sought to evade this omen however but National Flour Mills maintained an arms length 10-point lead to take the National Men’s crown 81-74. Similar to their Game Two performance Pacers began on a good note ending the first period 23-19 leaders, but late in the second NFM made their move; shooting sure, drawing the fouls and restricting their opponents scoring to lead 49-40 at the half.

With the lead in hand NFM settled into their game forcing Pacers to play along and sometimes pick up the chase, a practice which has not produced positive results for them during the course of the season. NFM’s Andy Best led the charge with 18 points and five rebounds, Kerry Westfield put in 15 points and held three rebounds and Ashley “Dr Dunk” Bynoe held down the lane with 12 points and five rebounds. The Pacer attack was marshalled by their own energy god Derrick Boxhill as he kept every NFM defender busy with his high flying antics and unmanageable pace to score 14 points lend three assists and handle two rebounds. Pacers Randy Harewood let in 12 and had four rebounds and Kenyatta Alfred put up a futile ten points, throughout the encounter the rhythm section which had travelled to support their teams was left with a bitter-sweet feeling having experienced victory and defeat in one night. At the final buzzer the otherwise quiet NFM bench erupted in celebration accompanied by the supporters who came out to see their home team stake their claim on basketball’s top prize.