ST. GEORGE'S Slayers eventually put away the Denham Town Wizards, 80-77, to advance to the KFC/bmobile National Basketball League (NBL) final in a nail-biter at the National Stadium Courts on Wednesday night, but the determined Wizards fought them every inch of the way.
For the third game in a row, the defending champions found themselves trailing, this time by nine points heading into the final stanza and were it not for the late game heroics of Andree Wilson, who had an impressive 32 points and 15 rebound, things may well have stayed that way.
The Wizards got off to a blazing start and, led by Anthony Farquharson, who had 26 points and 11 rebounds for the game, and hot shooting from Dwayne Harris, who finished with 24 points, they led the Slayers 24-11 after the first quarter.
In the second, Wilson and Kali McCarthy, who added 17 points to the tally, went to work. Back-to-back three point plays from Wilson pulled them to within two points at 36-34 at the 3:15 mark and a buzzer beater just before half-time tied it at 40-40.
However, the diligence of Farquharson and Harris ensured that Denham Town regained the lead in the third quarter.
Farquharson was deadly from mid-range while Harris knocked in three of his five three-point shots to restore Denham Town's lead heading in the final stanza.
Clutch shooting by Farquharson ensured that they still had that lead at 72-70 with two minutes left to go in the game. But a big three by Leon Chung saw Slayers nab the lead and then hold on.
"I don't know why we stopped doing what we were doing for the whole game, we stopped going to the basket," said a bitterly disappointed Wayne Bartley, coach of Denham Town. "We were in the bonus, we had 2:14 left on the clock and we started hoisting up three pointers. There was no reason for us rushing like that," he said.
EXPERIENCE PREVAILED
For St George's coach, Winston Harvey, it was experience which saw his team prevail.
" Champions just don't go out like that. We were always going to come out and fight and we were just not going to lose to Denham Town," Harvey said.
"We had a desire to get back to the finals and that's what kept us in it .We want the Urban Knights," he said.
Slayers and Urban Knights will face off in Game One of the finals on Saturday, June 3.
- K. M.
