PINELANDS still aren’t super just yet.
Good thing.
Basketball’s best weren’t dominant, but didn’t need to be, having scored nine unanswered points between the third and fourth quarters to advance to the Co-operators General Insurance Knockout Competition final via Saturday’s 69-57 win over title holders Urban Vybz St John’s Sonics.
Playing at the Barbados Community College, the league leaders won their seventh straight game across both competitions to book a spot in the finals against Warriors, who thumped Warrens 89-72 earlier.
But it hasn’t been as easy as the streak suggests, especially in a slugfest of a semi-final game where Sonics made Pinelands’ litany of stars work for everything.
The Pine simply won anyway, just like they’ve done all season long, using their defence to finally blow open a contest that St John’s somehow managed to stick around in.
And the run started in the unlikeliest of fashions, with Daniel Lovell sinking a rare trey to beat the third-quarter buzzer (50-41) before Charles Vanderpool dunked on the other side of the break.
Vanderpool wasn’t done just yet, though, coming up with big blocks on four possessions in succession, including a toe-to-toe rejection on an attempted Shane Whittaker dunk.
Before Sonics could even flinch they were down 56-41, before Akeem Marsh and Stefan Clarke threatened with back-to-back baskets.
Those buckets merely served to make the eventual score more respectable as Halley Franklyn scored six of the next seven points inclusive of a back-breaking triple (63-48).
It brought a timely end to an otherwise unsightly game that badly wanted for scoring from the time the two sides combined for 12 points in the first seven minutes.
Gill eventually broke the Pine’s shackles with seven straight to finish the first quarter, before returning to hit a pull-up trey in the second. Vanderpool then had successive buckets and Franklyn leaked out for a lay-up as Pinelands opened an eight-point lead (30-22).
Clarke tried to keep Sonics in it with four straight points, but Pinelands still went up by as many as 16 (45-29) early in the third when Marsh’s turnovers were converted into triples at the other end.
Yet Sonics refused to go away once Clarke hit a trey of his own to spark a 12-2 rally.
Gill led Pinelands with 18 points and ten rebounds and Vanderpool had 15 points, while Clarke top-scored for St John’s with a game-high 20.
Earlier, Warrens were held to just three third-quarter field goals while Warriors blew the cover off the contest via a game-changing 27-9 run.
Warrens entered the second half only trailing 43-39 until back-to-back Nicholai Williams buckets started the rout.
With Warrens struggling to get back, Warriors hit jumper after jumper in transition, especially from the left wing where they sank four straight including three treys.
Seon Hilliman had a game-high 25 points for Warriors, who also got 20 from Williams and 13 points and 14 rebounds from Trevor Simmons. Pearson Griffith led Warrens with 14 points, Akeem Williams scored 12 and Lance Posey 11.