Pinelands surely won’t be writing off anyone this time.
Lakers either.
Seems Game 2 is being treated like a close-out game by both teams, as the Pine and champions Lumber Company LSC said they expected the other to come out with all guns blazing for today’s Co-operators General Insurance Premier League basketball finals.
“We don’t think about losing,” said Pinelands’ Charles Vanderpool of the prospect of going down 0-2, “but the game is very important for both us and Lakers.”
Admitting that Pinelands might have overlooked the defending champs en route to losing Game 1, Vanderpool said: “I think we turned [the loss] into a positive as we were slacking and our work ethic was beginning to drop. So our intensity must be higher and we have to pay greater detail to the minor things.”
That approach of unwarranted overconfidence probably came about after the star-studded Pine – who feature four national players and another top 15 talent – swept both regular season matches against the defending champs by double digits.
But it’s a mistake LSC guard Adrian Allman assured his side wouldn’t make, despite being in a position to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five affair.
“This game is very important [as] that is a very dangerous team on both sides of the basketball and they have players that are extremely talented and can take over a game or even a series,” he acknowledged.
“They will be desperate not to go down 0-2, so defensively we expect a more aggressive Pine side, whether it be through double teams or increased physical play. Offensively, we expect their more marquee players may be featured more often in their half-court sets,” Allman said.
When asked what his team must do to square the series, Vanderpool said: “We have to be a team and not a group of individuals.”
The game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Barbados Community College.
