Jeremy Gill traded in the orange for black and white and now things look peachy in The Pine.
Barbados’ best is now officially back, just not for his old Clapham Bulls, as the national combo guard announced his Pinelands debut with a game-high 21 points in Sunday’s 81-73 win over basketball’s Premier League champs Warrens at the Barbados Community College.
The long awaited return ended weeks of speculation over Gill’s possible landing spot after the former league MVP hinted he might not return to his hometown side this season while failing to appear in any of Clapham’s five games.
He did show up for Pinelands, scoring or assisting on ten points of a decisive 11-5 run early in the fourth quarter that put the Pine ahead 71-61 and effectively ended a furious Warrens rally.
The champs threatened again thereafter, with Greig Springer getting baskets on successive possessions to trim the deficit to single digits (71-65) with just under three minutes to play.
But Gill was back at it again, converting an alley-oop off a half-court pass from Daniel Lovell before Charles Vanderpool and Lovell hit four straight free throws between them as Pinelands stretched the lead to as many as nine in the final seconds.
It was the surprisingly close finish to a contest that didn’t start off as one while Pinelands were busy showcasing their new additions of Gill and fellow one-time Warriors MVP Corey McDonald in a first-quarter rout.
At one point, the Pine more resembled the show-time Lakers than a team that missed the last three postseasons while Gill routinely flashed no-look passes for “and-one” finishes during Pinelands’ 26-11 opening romp.
However, the fun was all done soon after as American forward Lance Posey quickly made his presence felt in the post while George Farrell relentlessly attacked the rack as part of a furious 26-11 Warrrens rally that locked the scores (37-37) at half-time.
And Pinelands just couldn’t shake the champs in the third once Farrell got going from deep and Manuel Alleng provided the perfect foil off the dribble.
But Gill ended the period with a buzzer-beating triple off the dribble to break a 55-all deadlock before starting the fourth with assists to Vanderpool and Kevin Andrews and capping the surge with a pair of free throws.
Vanderpool finished with 16 points, eight rebounds and five blocks while Lovell added 12 points for Pinelands, who improved to a 2-1 record. Posey led Warrens (1-3) with 19 points and 11 boards and Farrell scored 17.
Earlier, Kareem Farrell had a game high 21 points in his first game of the season to lead Warriors to their second straight win via a 68-55 victory against the winless Co-operators General Insurance Tridents.
Nicholai Williams added 16 points and 13 rebounds while Kevin John had 12 points as Warriors (2-2) survived a menacing start to the third quarter by the schoolboys before Farrell had a run of 12 straight points for Warriors to end the threat.
Alejandro Boxhill led Tridents (0-5) with 12 points while Anand Joseph added ten points.