NO ADRIAN STEWART. No Ricardo Jemmott. No problem.
Well, not any major ones anyway.
Things are so good now that Cougars could squander almost all of a 33-point lead and still beat Combined Schools Tridents shorthanded, as the Co-operators General Insurance Basketball Premier League contenders held on for Thursday’s 86-73 victory at the Wildey Gym.
It was the fourth league win in succession for the resurgent Hothersal men, who bounced back from a disastrous 2-4 start to the season to move a half-game ahead of St John’s for the final play-off spot.
The streak has been no ordinary one either, with Cougars coming off a historic 88-point drubbing of Challengers before going up by as many as 33 (52-19) against the schoolboys in the first half. And all this while they took the floor with only six players.
The absence of star forwards Jemmott and Stewart was eventually felt, especially in the fourth quarter when Tridents went on a furious 26-14 run on the back of some timely heroics from Kelan Phillips, Jare Alleyne and Kirley Carter.
The schoolboys actually threatened earlier, though, having shown signs of life in the third period after well executed full court pressure reduced the deficit to 21 (68-47).
However, they truly tightened the screws in the fourth following a pair of Carter treys, as Cougars’ continual turnovers led to one basket after another.
At one point Cougars weren’t even crossing the halfway line while Nicholai Burton was being gifted lay-ups in the other direction.
Tridents seemingly ran out of gas with 1:47 left and Cougars still up 82-67, until Kelan Phillips gave them new life with three straight baskets that cut the lead to just nine (82-73).
But it was all she wrote, with the run proving too little too late when the schoolboys couldn’t get any more stops inside the final minute.
It was a shockingly close finish to a game that started otherwise, with Cougars running Tridents off the floor in one overwhelming transition assault.
When it wasn’t Selwyn Brooks leaking out in the open floor, Stevenson Callender merely attacked the front of the ring, or Damien Nicholls simply cleaned up the offensive glass.
Even elder statesman Adrian Catlyn beat his younger counterparts down the floor for a lay-up off a behind-the-back pass from Brooks.
A 26-14 lead then became a 52-19 rout once Tridents compounded the situation by routinely coughing up the rock to an eager Callender and Godfrey Leacock.
Nicholls had a game-high 24 points and 16 rebounds, Brooks scored 18 points, Callender netted 15 while Leacock chipped in with 11. Shawn Gaskin had ten points and 13 rebounds while Catlyn also scored ten for Cougars, who improved to 6-4.
Alleyne led Tridents (1-8) with 21 points, Phillips had 18 and Burton 16.
In the nightcap, Station Hill Cavaliers handed Challengers their second humiliating defeat in as many games by thrashing the bottom-feeders 101-46.
It was the second straight contest Challengers conceded more than 100 points following Sunday’s 136-49 whipping from Cougars.
And this one was on the cards from jump-ball as Cavs scored the game’s first 17 points without reply as part of a 28-10 opening run. Station Hill only surrendered a further nine points in the first half while building a 48-19 lead off full court pressure.
Saeed Norville led the way with 19 points for Cavs (7-3) while Darren Hunte, Jamario Clarke and Kevin Sealy pitched in with 18, 12 and 11 points, respectively. No Challengers (1-9) player scored in double digits.
