NUMBER two seed Half Mile Bulls defeated No.3-ranked Victory Valley Royals by ten points, 61-51, to reach the final of this year’s Linden Amateur Basketball Association Malta Supreme Christmas Open basketball final Thanks to their 10-point win, the Bulls will face No.1-ranked Retrieve Raiders in the final on Saturday at the tournament venue the Mackenzie Sports Club hard court.
The win by the Bulls was formalised on Tuesday night when their semifinal game was completed after rain had intervened the previous night causing the delay.
The Bulls came from a 7-11 first quarter score in favour of the Royals to move ahead at halftime 33-20 and by the end of the third quarter were up 47-34, before staving off the efforts by the Royals who were able to knot the scores at 45.
However, the Royals could not sustain their drive towards a win with the Bulls being led by national guard Terron Welch who had 16 points and Dennis Niles eight.
The best Royals players on the night were captain Harold Adams and Marlon Pollydore with 14 points
On the other hand, the Retrieve Raiders reached the final via a forfeited result against their opponents Amelia’s Ward Jets, who refused to continue their game Monday night in the second quarter where the scores were 21-10 in favour of the Raiders.
The Jets claimed that the conditions were not favorable for them to play and after being allowed some time to regroup and continue the game by the referees they failed to resume, leaving the officials no option but to award the game to the Raiders.