Blazers Seal the deal in Epic Thriller
The Sol Blazers vs Burger King Warriors will go down as one of the greatest games in history. After a fairly easy victory in Game 1 over the Warriors, The Sol Blazers found themselves in unfamiliar territory. Down by 10 points in the fourth quarter with 5 minutes to go.
The Warriors made two key adjustments: limit offensive rebounds and transition baskets by the Blazers. Jerome Narcisse decided to take on the responsibility of slowing down the league’s leading scorer Samuel O’Garro who scored 42 points in Game 1. Their plan worked! From the onset of the game, it was obvious that the Blazers would not get out to a major lead early; and with Warriors Center Javann Webb back in the mix, there would be no easy baskets at the rim for the Blazers. Webb also commanded alot of attention on the offensive end with this 6’4, 260 pound frame. But when Webb fouled out with 5 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, the trouble began for the Warriors who were trying to cling to a 10 point lead. The Blazers slowly began to chip away at the lead until Justin Golob hit a clutch 3 pointer to put the Blazers ahead by 1 with 16 seconds to go. The Warriors quickly pushed the ball down the court and found the man with the Hot Hand – Ebanks, who shifted through the defense and threw up a running left handed layup to put the team back ahead by 1 point.
The Blazers called a timeout in order to draw up a play and advance the ball. With only 5 seconds to go, the Blazers would inbound the ball and find their leading scorer, O’Garro, who threw up a 3 pointer that went in off the backboard to put the Blazers up by 2 with only 0.5 seconds to go. A technical foul was assessed to the Blazers who began celebrating a bit too early by storming the court before the game was finished. Ebanks would hit the free throw to bring the game to within 1 point, but with no time outs remaining, the Warriors were left with no time to draw up a play and had to inbound the ball from their baseline. After throwing the ball as high as possible, Shaad O’Garro would get to the ball before anyone else could to seal the game and re-establish the Blazers as the #1 team in Cayman Basketball.
Juawon Ebanks led the charge for the Warriors with 31 points including 5 three-pointers. Kwei General added 19 points and 7 rebounds while Stephan Cotterell added 15 points and grabbed 6 rebounds.
Samuel O’Garro led the team with 35 points and 11 rebounds, while his brother Shaad O’Garro came up with a monster 29 point, 11 rebound and 6 block performance. Just Golob also had a fantastic game with 14 points, 10 rebounds and 8 assists.
Final Score: 100-99 in favor of the Blazers.
Samuel O’Garro walked away with MVP honours, averaging 37 points, and 9 rebounds per game in the finals.
