CONTENDING has already turned into contention for Cougars.
The men booked to win it all couldn’t even beat Challengers, having surrendering a 17-point lead by scoring just two points in the third quarter of Saturday’s epic 72-63 collapse in the Co-operators General Insurance Basketball Premier League at the Wildey Gym.
It was a stunning win to say the least for an unheralded Challengers side that looked dead and buried by half-time and yet somehow found the mettle to stage the unlikeliest of second-half comebacks.
But the real narrative surrounding this result focused on Cougars’ disastrous meltdown, which not only featured that abysmal drought, but witnessed a senseless technical and an even more pointless unsportsmanlike foul amidst continual bickering.
More stunning still, was that this came directly on the heels of a completely dominant first-half performance, where the title favourites simply cruised to a 41-24 advantage despite missing big men Ricardo Jemmott, Shawn Gaskin and Damien Nicholls.
And Gaskin’s late arrival threatened to turn what was already a rout into further laughter still.
But that certainly wasn’t the case, not after Julian Grant hit jumper after jumper to spark a run of 12 unanswered Challengers points to cut the margin to five (41-36) midway through the third period.
Nicky King seemingly ended the drought by drawing a subsequent shooting foul, but he only managed to split those free throws, and that merely served as a brief interlude to the surge.
Challengers were at it again, with Adrian Fowler picking up where Grant left off with a pair of long jumpers before Nicholas Williams got some fast-break buckets to cap a lead-changing 15-1 end to the period (51-43).
As if that wasn’t enough, Selwyn Brooks picked up an ensuing technical for throwing the ball at Grant after the whistle, before Gaskin followed up almost immediately by needlessly striking Alwyn Lovell with an elbow to allow the lead to balloon further (57-47).
Yet Cougars still threatened, pulling within three (63-60) on some timely baskets from Terrence Roach, Godfrey Leacock and Stevenson Callender despite a series of “and-one” scores from Lovell.
However, Leacock was left to guard the bigger Lovell for one possession too many, as the latter had yet another put-back in the paint before Grant hit back-to-back jumpers to give Challengers a 70-63 lead with 1:03 left.
Cougars then stunningly mailed it in from there, with Roach air-balling a free throw after the squad refused to employ any kind of full court pressure in the dying moments.
Lovell filled the stat sheet with 24 points, 12 rebounds, six assists and five steals for Challengers – who improved to a 1-1 record – while Grant added 15 points.
Reigning MVP Adrian Stewart led Cougars (1-1) with 17 points despite taking just one shot in the entire second half while King and Roach finished with ten points apiece.
In the nightcap, Adrian Allman had a second successive 23-point performance and added a career-best 11 assists as defending champs Lumber Company LSC improved to 3-0 on the season with an 81-56 thumping of Urban Vybz St John’s Sonics.
Mark Bridgeman added 19 points, Keefe Birkett scored 15 while Andre Boadu chipped in with 13 points and 13 boards for an LSC side that held Sonics to just one field goal in a 22-4 second-quarter run that put them up 40-20 at the half.
The champs actually led by as many as 24 (49-25) before Akeem Marsh scored nine of his 15 points in the third quarter to make the score more respectable. Stefan Clarke added 12 points and Dwayne Kellman had 11 points and 11 rebounds for Sonics, who dropped to 1-1.