Blazers top Sons in thriller

Robert Bailey, Gleaner Writer

Gawain Mark scored a lay-up in the final two seconds to lift Waterhouse Blazers to a nail-biting 56-54 victory over Swift Sons in the opening game of the 2011 Flow National Basketball League at the National Arena on Sunday night.

With the game tied at 54-54 and Sons in possession of the ball inside Blazers' half, the speedy Mark intercepted a pass from Adrian Wellington then ran the floor to score the winning basket, much to the delight of their fans.

The Blazers trailed their opponents 28-19 at half-time, but they rallied to take a 39-35 lead at the end of the third period.

Shooting guard Kirk Shaw, who also dished out six assists, was the leading scorer for the Blazers with 14 points, while Brandon Grant (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Raymond Layne (nine points, seven rebounds) led the support cast.

Wellington top-scored for the Sons with a game-high 19 points, and pulled in 11 rebounds.

Lamar Dixon, coach of the Blazers, said: "When the scores were tied I told my players to overplay their markers and see if we can get a steal, and that is exactly what happened."

Cause of defeat

Howard Harvey, coach of the Sons, blamed the defeat on lack of concentration.

"They didn't execute the instruc-tions that were given to them, but this is part of the game because sometimes you will make mistakes like these, and so we just have to regroup and look forward to our next game on Thursday," said Harvey.

In the day's feature game, defending champions Tivoli Gardens All-stars made a winning start with an easy 62-51 win over Majesty Gardens Legends.

Anthony Farquharson (13 points, 15 rebounds) and Dwayne Harris (13 points) were the leading scorers for Tivoli. They led 38-27 at half-time and 53-41 at the end of the third quarter.

"I think this win will lift our confidence a lot because we know that the task ahead is not going to be easy, but we just have to prepare for it," said Tivoli's coach, Edward 'Ted' Marshall.

Kemar McLeish was the top scorer for the Legends with 13 points.

Marland Nattie, coach of the Legends, said: "I think our performance was a repeat of last year's final when we had 12 individuals playing against a team because none of the senior players took charge and realised that they had to play together to win."