PLS Hawks are once again the winners of the pre-season Curtain-raiser tournament. If they narrowly defeated MBU Rockers 96-91 in last years final and eliminated them in the semifinal this time, PLS Hawks earned a comfortable 73-57 victory over Baya in Saturdays final. Bayas Marcus Victor scored the first basket of the game and Timmy Adam had a good start, scoring eight points including a two-handed slam on an alley-oop in the first quarter, but their team trailed 14-19. Hawks began the second quarter with a strong defence, whereby they forced Baya to make a number of turnovers which they turned into basket as Baya failed to score for nearly seven minutes. Although Baya scored 12 points in the final three minutes of this quarter, PLS Hawks were much stronger and they led 33-26 at half-time. PLS Hawks stepped on the accelerator in the third quarter as Baya looked disorganised with stray passes. As coach Clifford Joubert gave most of his players playing time, Baya were lost in confusion and they were outscored 21-10 (54-36 after 30 minutes of action). Baya tried to bring the game to the Hawks and closed the game to 10 points but this is the best they could do although their supporters brought their vocal support. Although Adam got 10 of his teams 21 fourth-quarter points, it was too little to stop them from losing as the Hawks got 19 to win the 73-57 to send their fans in raptures. PLS Hawks veteran power forward Jim Domingue (194-F-68) felt that his team played well and were able to destabilise Baya early in the game. Although we started training a bit late for the tournament, we were still able to defend the title which shows that all the players worked hard. PLS Hawks are looking forward to the 2014 league competition, and we know that all the other teams will be looking to bring us down, said Domingue. Bayas coach Michel Malbrook said his players lost the game because they werent consistent in defence and attack. We were unable to score easy lay-ups and free-throws and it cost us dearly in the end. The 2014 season is going to be a tight, competitive season, and thats why I feel that we need to work on all aspects of our game in order to be ready to challenge for the titles on offer, said coach Malbrook. Adam finished as the games top scorer with 26 points. Courtesy of: basket-in-africa.blogspot.com
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