Nets stepped closer to a national title bid Tuesday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall with an emphatic 23 points win over Maccabees in the last first round game of the Next Level
nationwide first division tournament.
The Meadowbrook-based team easily dismissed any challenge from Maccabees to become the final team to qualify for the final eight of the tournament in the feature game of a double-header with a 94-71 win.
Centre, Fabian Johnson scored 28 points for Nets in the game to register the tournament’s highest individual score so far with support coming from forwards Triston Tulloch (21 points), Mortimer Williams (13 points) and Sheldon Howell (12 points).
Shooting guard Hodayah Stewart and newly-acquired centre Akini Mars scored 17 points each to lead the offence for Maccabees, while K’naniel Stewart pitched in with 12 points.
Former Courts Pacesetter player Bevon Gordon was absent from the top scoring list despite his valiant performance from the three- point range that kept the Maccabees in the game in the final half of the 40-minute encounter.
Down 49-32 at the start of the third quarter, Maccabees’ Gordon landed a huge three-point jump shot to adjust the scores to 49-35; Maccabees sensed an opening for an offensive run and immediately upped defensive pressure.
However, the heightened man-to-man defence attack created an imbalance on the court, since Maccabees could not rival the head- to- head skill of the Nets – the tactic created opportunities for Nets’ Pelham Doris to penetrate from the top of the key.
Maccabees employed the services of high flying forward Ewart Smith for the first time in the game but the team was completely outwitted by the Nets on every strategy they pulled from the coaching manuals Tuesday night.
Howell with a jumper in the ‘paint’ gave Nets their first 20- point lead at 61-40 near the end of the third quarter. In the final two minutes of the third, Gordon nailed another three-point jumper to bring the Nets lead under 20 points (63-45).
Gordon was not done yet from the three-point range and the lanky forward nailed an almost impossible jumper from way beyond the ark with 32 seconds remaining in the third quarter and another long shot at the beginning of the fourth quarter.
Gordon manoeuvred around the baseline defence to hit a short jump that was worth two points to end his prolific scoring which kept Maccabees from complete embarrassment. He scored an unofficial 14 points in the game.
Maccabees had an aggressive offensive surge in the first five minutes of the final quarter but the Nets were too hot to hold – the team’s conversion on offence was approximately 70 percent while they shot almost 55 percent from the field.
Nets slipped away on a 16-3 run to secure a quarter-final place for the number three seeded Georgetown team. Nets will face Linden’s Victory Valley Royals in Linden for a semi-final spot in Linden on Sunday.
Royals disposed of Pepsi Sonics 62-49 earlier Tuesday night in the first game to advance and also move on in the win-or-go-home tournament.
Dwight Hooper top scored for the Linden side with 15 points while Mark Richards and Seon Harris scored 10 points each. Trevor Smith was the only player in double figures for the Sonics with 10 points.
The final eight teams in the tournament are last year’s champions, Kings, Georgetown’s number one seeded team, Courts Pacesetters, Wismar Pistons, Royals, Nets, Berbice All Stars, Beepat’s Scorpions and Bounty Colts.
Pacesetters will play Bounty Colts in the feature game Friday night while Scorpions come up against Berbice in the first game. The Royals vs Nets game is set as the feature game in Linden on Sunday with Kings playing Pistons in the first game.
The winners of the upcoming quarter-final games will advance to the semi-final set for Tuesday and Thursday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall, where the teams will settle the scores for a final spot on February 25.
