THEY HAVE no Kobe Bryant, no Phil Jackson, no Pau Gasol.But Barbados’ Lakers have no losses either.Premier League basketball’s unbeaten leaders Lumber Company Lakers kept their run at perfection alive, overcoming a season-low 55 points by containing rivals First Works Warriors to just 25 per cent shooting accuracy from the floorfor their ninth win in Saturday’s 55-44 defensive grind at the YMCA.It wasn’t the most aesthetic of performances from the usually proficient Husbands men, who were forced to survive a woeful 18-of-54 shooting effort that included just one field goal in the entire third quarter.Defensive tussleBut the Lakers will settle for perfect over pretty every time, especially against an old adversary known for turning contests into basketball’s version of physical warfare.And it was the Dayrells Road side that actually fared worse in the defensive tussle while missing three-quarters of their 67 attempts from the floor and 13 foul shots out of 20.They didn’t do themselves any additional favours during Lakers’ dreadful third quarter either, with former MVP Corey McDonald wasting a prime opportunity to finally turn around his side’s offensive futility.A technicalThe league leaders led by as many as ten points (29-19) two minutes into that period, having constrained Warriors to just eight points in the second, and seemed certain of blowing the contest wide open.However, the Lakers bench was blown for a technical, swinging the momentum in their opponents’ favour as they surrendered five unanswered points.But McDonald all but squashed that rally after picking up a needless technical of his own, forcing him to the bench with foul trouble and thus leaving Warriors without their best offensive player for the rest of the quarter.Adrian Allman swiftly took advantage, scoring six free throws in succession to offset his team’s woes from the field and restore the double-digit margin (38-28).Threatened The Lakers’ lead went up to as much as 12(44-32) on consecutive baskets from Allman early in the fourth, before Warriors threatened to rally once again when McDonald returned midway through the period.Kareem Farrell hit a clutch triple plus another basket to sandwich a tough lay-up by Tremaine Shaw, before Tremaine’s older brother, Kirk, sank a three as well in reducing the deficit to just five (49-44) with 1:10 remaining.It was the return of another veteran that decided this contest, though, as Lakers point guard Derek Browne checked off the bench for a driving lay-up to end the run, while Keefe Birkett and Ormond Haynes combined for four points to finish the scoring.Allman ended with 12 points and Birkett added 11 for the Lakers. Kirk Shaw topscored for Warriors with 11 points.Earlier, Patriots went on a 24-16 third-quarter run before Anthony “Bill” White had 12 of his game-high 23 points in the fourth, as the St James side overcame an early double-digit deficit to beat Sagicor Tridents 82-66.It was the fourth win in five games for the Patriots, who also got 20 points and 14 rebounds from impressive rookie Julian Walcott and a further 18 points from Rawle Conway.Daniel Lovell led Tridents with 17 points; Nicholai Williams had 13, and Justin Maloney and Akeem Williams had ten points apiece.
