Rachael Thom­spon-King

De­fence Force, led by Steven "Lighter" Lewis, con­tin­ued its dom­i­nance in the Na­tion­al Bas­ket­ball Cham­pi­onships, record­ing its fourth straight in de­fence of its ti­tle. The sol­dier/sailor unit trav­elled to To­ba­go on Wednes­day and de­feat­ed Pure Play­ers, 74-59 in the Men's Di­vi­sion Group Two match. De­fence Force had al­ready de­feat­ed Na­tion­al Flour Mills (NFM), Petro Jazz and Long­denville Bul­lets. Lewis net­ted a match-high 20 points and Der­rick Box­hill helped with 16, as the De­fence Force, which had a 13-point (38-25) half­time lead, moved on as the clear leader of the group.

For Pure Play­ers, con­sis­tent scor­ers Oral Bel­fon and Dex­troy Man­swell, who post­ed 17 and 10 re­spec­tive­ly, were once again on the ball. Back in Trinidad, Petro Jazz and Roy­al Ex­tra Li­ons se­cured vic­to­ries down South at the South­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Pleas­antville, San Fer­nan­do. Jazz stopped NFM 89-77 in the open­ing af­fair and lat­er, Li­ons got the bet­ter of Bri­an Chase Acad­e­my 68-45.

For­ward Ako Pas­cal was the "go to" man for Jazz as he put in 24 points and grabbed five re­bounds; while An­drew Ifill was the star for Li­ons top scor­ing with 18 points.

At St Paul Street Com­plex in Port of Spain, De­tour Shak At­tack ral­lied back af­ter be­ing down 36-39 at the end of the first half, to pull off a ten-point (82-72) win over Sport­world Strak­er Nets, to seal its sec­ond win in as many match­es. Kurt Chris­t­ian led the way for the win­ner with 25 points while Keny­at­ta Al­fred and Shawn Lawrence had 12 each. Miguel Sansavoir scored 19, Bran­don Charles 17 and Mario Davis 16 for the Nets. In the open­ing match of the dou­ble-head­er, a women's en­counter, Strak­er Nets eased past Bri­an Chase Acad­e­my 70-52 af­ter hold­ing a 40-25 ad­van­tage at the half. Ma­halia Simp­son had a match-high 20 points for the win­ner. Ger­maine Charles sup­port­ed with 19. Jamie Jack was the lone Bri­an Chase scor­er in dou­ble fig­ures with 17 points.

Re­sults

At Pleas­antville

Men Di­vi­sion

Petro Jazz (51) 89 (Ako Pas­cal 24 pts/5 rebs, Miguel?Williams 18 pts/11 pts, Louie Davis?17 pts/9?rebs) vs NFM (34) 77 (Kens­ley Sandy 22 pts/8 rebs, Andy Best 22 pts/5 rebs).

Li­ons (25) 68 (An­drew Ifill 33 pts/11 rebs, Tony Nor­eiga?9 pts/10 rebs) vs Bri­an Chase Acad­e­my (25) 45 (An­drew Cal­liste 17 pts/3 rebs, Roland Sylvester?13 pts/2 rebs).?

Pure Play­ers (25) 59 (Oral Bel­fon 17, Dex­troy Man­swell 10) vs De­fence Force (38) 74 (Steven Lewis 20, Der­rick Box­hill 16).

St Paul Street

Men Di­vi­sion

Shak At­tack 82 (Kurt Chris­t­ian 25, Ken­ny­at­ta Al­fred 12, Shawn Law­er­ence 12) vs Strak­er Nets 72 ( Miguel Sansavoir 19, Bran­don Charles 17 and Mario Davis 16)

Women Di­vi­sion

Strak­er Nets 70 (Ma­halia Simp­son 20, Ger­maine Charles 19) vs Bri­an Chase Acad­e­my 52 (Jamie Jack 17)