WHILE Republic Nets and Eagles basketball clubs were able to make a clean sweep of their respective Championships, Colts and Plaisance Guardians will have to play one more game to determine who will be crowned the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) Division-1 Champions. Republic Bank Nets won the Division-2 title after picking up their second consecutive win in the ‘best-of-three’ series against Pepsi Sonics 54-42, while Eagles soared to an 81-75 points win in game two of their series, to lift the Under-23 title at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall last Sunday.
However, Plaisance Guardians were hoping to replicate or better their 77-76 game-one win, but Colts, behind another all-round performance from point guard Dave Causway, rebounded to seal an entertaining 77-74 points win to send their series to a ‘game three decider’.
Nikkoloi Smith’s missed three-point shot with three seconds remaining could have sent the game into overtime and would have put a cap on the Guardians’ fourth quarter splurge where they outscored the Colts 26-12.
It was déjà vu for Kurt English, who was guilty of missing two free-throws in Game one that would have either tied the game or hand Colts the victory.
English missed shots resulted in the Guardians being given a second chance after Colts had outplayed the East Coast Demerara team for three periods.
Colts led 27-16 after the opening period then scored 21 points to Guardians’ 19 to lead 48-35 at the halfway mark.
The Colts good run was carried over to the third quarter which they won 17-13 and had a 17-point (65-48) lead heading into the final period of play.
Plaisance Guardians’ dramatic comeback in the fourth quarter was led by Smith and forward Trenton Woolford, who combined to pull their team within six points of Colts (67-61) with five minutes left in the game.
Smith’s clutch three-pointer with 15 seconds to play that had the Guardians within striking distance was not enough to see them over the hill.
The Colts’ outstanding backcourt once again led to their success with Causway scoring 21 points and Shelroy Thomas scoring 14. Centre Shane Webster’s consistent play in the paint saw him claimt 17 points in the Colts win.
Woolford had a game-high 25 points while Smith had 18 and Nitzkeel Yisrael 12.
The Colts and Guardians will battle in the ‘must-win’ final game tomorrow night at the same venue.

By Rawle Toney