By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Police Crimestoppers and Nassau Flight Services Ballers are headed to the 2024 Bahamas Government Departmental Basketball Association (BGDBA) Finals which are scheduled to begin on Wednesday at the DW Davis Gymnasium.

The Crimestoppers needed an 88-87 victory in overtime to dethrone the defending champions Bain & Grants Town Cybots in a three-game sweep on Saturday night.

The Ballers swept the Bamboo Shack Patrollers 3-0 thanks to a 94-79 win in game three over the weekend.

Crimestoppers vs Cybots

The Crimestoppers wanted nothing more than to derail the Cybots’ chances of winning their eighth straight BGDBA title this season. 

The second-seeded team completed the job on Saturday night and, according to head coach Anthony “Cops” Rolle, sending the Cybots home felt good.

“Advancing to the finals feels good, especially against such a competitive team. The Cybots are a good franchise that is well-coached and they have a lot of veteran players and some national team players so it is always good to beat them,” he said.

The Crimestoppers had all the momentum on their side for game three after placing the Cybots in an 0-2 hole on Friday. Before Saturday’s game, they defeated the 2023 BGDBA champions 69-57 and 83-72 in prior matchups.

Four Crimestoppers hit the double-digit mark in the OT thriller. Batchlette Lafleur led all scorers with 24 points, four rebounds and two assists. 

Adam Johnson was a force to be reckoned with inside the paint. He dropped 19 points and cleaned up 15 rebounds while dishing out four assists for his team.

Kirklyn Farrington and Cameron Chery finished the game with 17 points and 10 points respectively.

The Cybots were up 40-37 at the halftime break. 

Lafleur tied the score at 52-52 following a three-point play at the 2:57 mark. Despite staying within striking distance, the Crimestoppers never took the lead in the third period.

Through three quarters, the Cybots remained on top 57-55.

Coach Rolle gave the Cybots credit but said having a younger team made the difference down the stretch.

“I know they are a bit up there in age so we matched up in a man-to-man defence. We wanted to make it difficult for them to score and give them a limited clock to operate with to score a basket. It wore them down so in the fourth quarter of the games they had no legs,” he said.

The game went back and forth in the fourth quarter until the Cybots went on a 7-0 run to extend their lead to 78-71 with less than three minutes to play.

The Cybots were up by 4 (83-79) with under 16 seconds remaining but Brian Bain missed two freethrows that could have iced the game for his team.

Meanwhile, Lafleur was fouled on a three and picked up two makes at the charity stripe. Cameron Chery grabbed the offensive rebound and made an easy go-ahead layup to force overtime.

The game went down to the wire in the extra period of play. Ernest Saunders placed the Cybots ahead by 1 (87-86) with 1:47 on the game clock in OT. Farrington ended up closing the Cybots’ championship window with a smooth floater to wrap up the game 88-87.

Saunders put up 20 points and 3 assists while shooting 47.4 per cent in the loss. Georgio Walkes had 20 points with 5 rebounds in the elimination game.

Coach Rolle is expecting it to be a competitive best-of-seven series against the Ballers.

“We do not take anything for granted. Our goal is to come out and win. They are well-coached, they have Abel Joseph and another national team player and they have a group of three to four good players who caught the league by storm this year. We have a game plan for them and we will execute that plan. The goal is to come out with the victory and the championship also,” he said.

Ballers vs Patrollers

The Ballers swept the Bamboo Shack Patrollers in emphatic fashion.

They shared the load on offence with four Ballers scoring in double digits. Abel Joseph led the way with a monster triple double double.

He stuffed the stat sheet with 24 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists.

Tehrad Rahming got hot and chipped in 27 points, 19 rebounds and 3 blocks. He was also efficient, making 13-of-19 field goals. 

After having a 48-41 advantage at the halftime break, the Patrollers watched their lead slip away in the third quarter.

Tameko Higgs canned a three-pointer at the 6:41 mark to give the Ballers the lead 54-53.

His team outscored the Patrollers 27-17 for a 68-65 advantage going into the final quarter of the contest.

The Ballers built on their lead in the fourth quarter and pulled away by 10 (75-65) early on. The Patrollers hit an offensive slump during this time and did not score their first field goal until the 5:27 mark. While they struggled to generate offensive output, the Ballers were coasting ahead thanks to a 16-3 run which helped them to put away their opponents for good.

Lerecus Armbrister put up 21 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists for the Patrollers, but he struggled on offence. He shot 6-for-15 on field goals and 2-for-7 on threes.

The BGDBA Finals will begin on Wednesday night at 8:00pm in the DW Davis Gymnasium.