RACHAEL THOMPSON-KING
rachael.king@guardian.co.tt
A run in the third quarter by Detour Shak Attack, piloted by forward Kurt "Koto" Christian, saw them rebound from a slow start to beat Prisons in the Men's Premier Division of the Barry Stewart Invitational Basketball League on Thursday night at the Maloney Indoor Sports Arena.
Christian scored a team-high 18 points while combining with post-player Wilt Vincent (14 ) and forward Reynold Hospedales (13) to help their team recover from a 46-33 deficit at halftime after trailing by 10 (26-16) in the first quarter.
Prisons which was battling to remain among the top eight teams to advance to the next round in the 10-team competition, was led by Michael Jerome (27) and Mikahail Williams (26) and looked set to earn its second win of the season but let it slip.
By the third quarter, Shak Attack, which is third in the standings, took a 55-54 lead before outscoring the eight-place Prisons in the fourth period, 24-18, to get the seven-point victory.
On Wednesday night at the Jean Pierre Complex in Port-of-Spain, Brian Chase Academy (BCA) could have caused an upset as well over leader Straker Nets but the latter had a late run in the fourth quarter and escaped with a one-point victory, 65-64.
Staring a huge defeat in its seventh match of the season, the Brian Chase men did not drop their heads as they entered the fourth and final quarter trailing by 17 (57-40) after bringing the score within eight (40-32) at the halfway mark.
Straker, who opened the first quarter with a 23-9 lead, play dropped offensively in the final period after coach Barry Stewart sat his star players Sadiki Guerra and Jeffrey Harris after sensing an easy win.
However, BCA had other plans and took full advantage of their lapse and led by Nathan Lewis, who netted a match-high 22 points, outscored the opponent, 24-8 and seemed to be en route to give Straker its first loss but it was not to be.
Straker, guided by Sadiki Guerra with a team-high 15, managed to hold off the surging BCA to stay unbeaten.
