The Ravens and Beepat Scorpions basketball teams are through to the Division Three final of the Georgetown Amateur Basketball Association (GABA) Pepsi Street Playoff Series after they overcame their opponents on Wednesday night at the Burnham Court.
With both teams playing their second game in the best-of-three series, which followed victories in their respective game one last Saturday, they advanced to the final after Scorpions demolished Pacesetters 79-62 and Ravens held off the Melanie Patriots 50-45.
The evening’s opening game saw the Ravens bumping heads once again with Melanie Patriots after their tense game one.
The Melanie Patriots came out strong and were rearing in the first half to avenge the game one loss they suffered at the hands of their opponents.
The Patriots took control of the first quarter and restricted the Ravens to a measly five points while they racked up 17. They carried the intensity into the second period even though they met with much more resistance from the Ravens.
At the time of the inbound pass for the start of the third quarter Ravens were eight points behind (26-18), but this Melanie Patriots lead did not stand much longer, especially with Ravens’ Tyrone Hamid attacking his opponents’ basket.
When not attacking the hole, the Ravens guarded their turf with every ounce of aggression they could’ve mustered and picked up steals off numerous Melanie Patriots possessions in the third.
Hamid covered the floor at all angles. When he was not hitting the net from
beyond the arc and making his way around and over defenders in the paint for some critical baskets, he was covering on defence aided by his teammates.
Six straight points from Hamid in the fourth quarter eventually took the Ravens past the Melanie Patriots on the scoreboard in the dying minutes of the game and helped secure their five-point advantage.
Hamid was the lead scorer for the Ravens with 19 points, while Jason Harper contributed 13.
On the other end of the court, David Fletcher netted 15 for Melanie Patriots, while Ray Hopper and Kurtley English added 14 and 10 points respectively.
Following the opening game, the night concluded with a one-sided feature match-up between Beepat Scorpions and Courts Pacesetters with the latter falling 17 points shy of a final spot.
Scorpions’ Shelroy Thomas and Pacesetters’ Richard Mohandatt were the go-to guys on both teams, piloting their squads with 38 and 27 points respectively.