Jeda­iah King stepped up with a team-high 23 points, close­ly sup­port­ed by Ja­son Best’s vi­tal 20-point con­tri­bu­tion, as Roy­al­ty Bas­ket­ball Acad­e­my de­feat­ed de­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Mal­oney Pac­ers 86-77 in the Men’s First Di­vi­sion dur­ing the Lin­coln “Crip­ple” Grif­fith North Zone Bas­ket­ball League.

De­spite a hero­ic, match-high 33 points from the Pac­ers’ Ha­keem Mor­gan, Roy­al­ty held firm to se­cure the vic­to­ry as the reg­u­lar-sea­son matchup un­fold­ed on Thurs­day night at the Wood­brook Youth Fa­cil­i­ty in Port-of-Spain.

​From the open­ing tip, Roy­al­ty set the pace. Led by King’s long-range shoot­ing, hit­ting three three-point­ers, and Best’s steady, ag­gres­sive at­tacks, Roy­al­ty blazed out to a com­mand­ing 25-13 lead by the end of the first quar­ter.

The Pac­ers mount­ed a come­back in the sec­ond pe­ri­od. Mor­gan took con­trol of the of­fence, slic­ing through Roy­al­ty’s de­fence to keep Mal­oney with­in touch­ing dis­tance. His scor­ing out­put, which in­clud­ed sev­er­al trips to the free-throw line, was bol­stered by Free­dom Leon, who chipped in 13 points, and Ar­i­on Ed­wards, who added 12. To­geth­er, the trio helped nar­row the deficit, but Roy­al­ty still held a 43-37 cush­ion at the half.

​The third quar­ter was just as com­pet­i­tive. Mal­oney pushed hard to snatch the lead, cap­i­tal­is­ing on quick tran­si­tion points. How­ev­er, Roy­al­ty re­lied on sup­port from Esan Babb, whose 14 points pro­vid­ed re­lief when­ev­er Pac­ers threat­ened to surge ahead. Roy­al­ty man­aged to pre­serve a slim three-point ad­van­tage, lead­ing 61-58 head­ing in­to the fi­nal pe­ri­od.

​With the game on the line in the fourth quar­ter, Roy­al­ty’s bal­anced at­tack proved too tough for Pac­ers to over­come. While Mor­gan con­tin­ued at­tack­ing for Mal­oney, Roy­al­ty ex­e­cut­ed clean­ly down the stretch, ex­tend­ing their lead in the clos­ing min­utes to seal the nine-point win.

Ear­li­er, Spar­tans TT de­liv­ered a com­mand­ing sec­ond-half per­for­mance to brush aside East West Vet­er­ans 79-52 in their Over-45 Di­vi­sion clash, mov­ing in­to sec­ond spot, six points be­hind lead­ers De­fence Force Vet­er­ans (24 points).

​Spar­tans edged a com­pet­i­tive open­ing quar­ter 18-14 be­fore East West ral­lied back to take a nar­row 33-30 lead at the half. How­ev­er, Spar­tans com­plete­ly dom­i­nat­ed af­ter the break, lim­it­ing East West to just four third-quar­ter points to charge ahead 53-34.

​Hec­tor Sam led the at­tack for Spar­tans with 19 points, backed by Joel Den­nis (15), Kevin Sunich (12), and Dex­ter Bridge­wa­ter (11). Ryan Spencer (13) and Mar­lon Thomas (11) top-scored in vain for East West, which fin­ished the reg­u­lar sea­son in fourth spot with 14 points to book a place in the “Big Four” be­hind third-placed Vet­er­ans (16 points).

Ac­tions con­tin­ue to­day and on Tues­day be­fore the start of the re­spec­tive “Big Four” com­pe­ti­tions from Thurs­day.

Re­sults

Thurs­day

Men’s First Di­vi­sion

Mal­oney Pac­ers 77 (Ha­keem Mor­gan 33, Free­don Leon 13, Ar­i­on Ed­wards 12) vs Roy­al­ty 86 (Jeda­iah King 23, Ja­son Best 20, Esan Babb 14). Quar­ters: 1st 25-13, 2nd 43-37, 3rd 61-58 (All in favour of Roy­al­ty).

O-45 Di­vi­sion

East West Vet­er­ans 52 (Ryan Spencer 13, Mar­lon Thomas 11) vs Spar­tans TT 79 (Hec­tor Sam 19, Joel Den­nis 15, Kevin Sunich 12, Dex­ter Brige­wa­ter 11). Quar­ters: 1st 18-14 (spar­tans), 2nd 33-30 (East West), 3rd 53-4 (Spar­tans).

Tues­day

Boys U-17 Di­vi­sion

Coach KG Elite 89 (Ju­r­rell Charles 37, Lance Crouch 19, Kai John 13) vs Mal­oney Pac­ers 111 (N’Ko­bie Ince 31, Tyrese Singh 24, Joshua Fontenelle 13, Jev­er­son Au­gus­tine 11). Quar­ters: 1st 32-14, 2nd 58-42, 3rd 78-68 (All in favour of Pac­ers).

O-45 Di­vi­sion

Spar­tans TT 96 (Hec­tor Sam 27, Dex­ter Bridge­wa­ter 20, Kevin Sunich 13, Nigel Fletch­er 12) vs Pris­ons 67 (Ke­ston Vi­dale 20, Ja­son Best 17, Lar­ry Al­leyne 14). Quar­ters: 1st 20-16 (Spar­tans), 2nd 43-27 (Pris­ons), 3rd 65-48 (Spar­tans).

Match­es

Sun­day (Au­gust 16)

Women’s Di­vi­sion

Roy­al­ty vs Spar­tans, 11.30 am

Men’s Sec­ond Di­vi­sion

Roy­al­ty vs Spar­tans, 2.30 pm

Mal­oney Pac­ers vs UTT Pa­tri­ots, 4 pm

Men’s First Di­vi­sion

Spar­tans TT vs Ba­sic Acad­e­my, 6.30 pm

Tues­day (Au­gust 18)

Men’s Sec­ond Di­vi­sion

T&T 3x3 Acad­e­my vs Spar­tans TT, 6.30 pm

Roy­al­ty vs Ba­sic Acad­e­my, 8 pm

O-45 Di­vi­sion

Pl*Team*P*W*L*Pts

1*Def Force Vets*8*8*0*24

2*Spar­tans Vets*8*5*3*18

3*Vet­er­ans 8-4-4-16

4*East West Vets*8*3*5*14

5*Pris­ons*8*0*8*8