EAGLES Basketball Club took a 1-0 advantage over Pacesetters in the ‘best-of-three’ finals of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) League Championships which bounced off at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on Wednesday. The Eagles flew to a 95-86 points win, doing so in overtime to clinch the first game in dramatic fashion.
With the scores tied at 77, Eagles’ Travis Belgrave saw his attempt blocked by Pacesetters’ Roger John. Three seconds remained on the game clock at the time of John’s heroics and his play forced the game to an extra five minutes.
Pacesetters had erased a six-point deficit (67-61) to lead 76-71 with just over one minute remaining in the fourth quarter.
However, a determined Eagles team pulled the game back in their favour, trailing by one point (76-75) with 50 seconds left to play.
Pacesetters would want to blame their inability to close the game out on Jaleel Duke.
Duke was fouled with 13 seconds in the game and was sent to the ‘charity’ line to shoot two shots.
He made his first and tied the game (77-77), but his second shot went short and Eagles held onto the loose ball.
It was then John pulled off a game-saving block shot for Pacesetters on Eagles’ Belgrave, who had attempted to ‘punch’ the lane for a lay-up.
However, in overtime, the Eagles Basketball Club took complete control of the game, scoring 18 points in the added five minutes of play, as compared to Pacesetters’ nine.
Stephen Peters was Pacesetters’ only shining hope in the extra period, scoring eight of his team’s nine points, while Eagles turned to Darroll Williams who also scored eight points and Somesh Danram supported with three points.
But despite his failed attempt at a game-winner, Belgrave poured in a game-high 29 points for Eagles.
Williams was the team’s second highest scorer with 20 points. Kevin Wiggins also contributed 18 points.
Pacesetters leading scorer on the night was Jaleel Duke (25 points), and was assisted by Stephen Peters, Nathan Saul and Marvin Durant who scored 16, 13 and 10 points respectively.
Meanwhile, Pepsi Sonics clinched their berth to the Division 2 final, when they defeated Melanie Patriots 77-51.
The dependable Jason Squires led all scorers with 21 points and was supported by his back-court partners Aubrey Smith and Kerwin Jackson who had 14 points each.
Shaquille Eversley, Ashton Adams and Orison Amsterdam netted 11, 10 and eight points respectively for the East Coast Demerara unit.
The win for the Sonics means that they will now come up against rivals Republic Bank Nets in the best-of-three final.

By Rawle Toney