Cap­tain Tyrik Singh de­liv­ered, drop­ping 32 points to lead South Side Elite to a 76-68 vic­to­ry over Po­lice in the de­cid­ing Game 5 of the best-of-five se­ries fi­nal (3-2) of the South Zone Bas­ket­ball Com­mis­sion's League on Fri­day night.

​The ac­tion un­fold­ed at the South­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na in Pleas­antville, San Fer­nan­do, in front of the biggest crowd of the sea­son. It was win­ner-take-all: Game 5 of the Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion fi­nal, pit­ting the vet­er­an cham­pi­on, Po­lice, against the hun­gry chal­lengers, South Side Elite, coached by for­mer na­tion­al women's play­er Melis­sa Guerero, who is a new­com­er in the coach­ing world.

​Guerero de­scribed the se­ries fi­nal as "tough."

​"We fought for every­thing in game 5. The guys left it all out there. There were dis­agree­ments at times but we stuck to­geth­er and won it," said the rook­ie coach.

​The open­ing half be­longed en­tire­ly to the reign­ing cham­pi­on, who had lev­elled the se­ries on Wednes­day with an 82-76 vic­to­ry in Game 4. Po­lice had lost Game 1 (81-75) and won Game 2 (91-88), while Elite took Game 3 (75-70).

​Po­lice, coached by Ash­ton Pe­ters, played with the con­fi­dent poise of a team that had been here be­fore, clamp­ing down de­fen­sive­ly and mov­ing the ball ex­pert­ly. Mika­hail Williams (20 points) and Fab­rice Fish­er (18 points) were per­sis­tent, dri­ving the lane and knock­ing down perime­ter shots to keep Elite at bay.

​Elite strug­gled to find a rhythm, trail­ing 16-11 af­ter the first quar­ter. De­spite their best ef­forts, the mo­men­tum stayed with the reign­ing cham­pi­on, who suc­cess­ful­ly stretched its lead to 36-31 by half­time. Po­lice looked com­fort­able, threat­en­ing to make it back-to-back ti­tles.

​The third quar­ter was not just a mo­men­tum swing; it was a hos­tile takeover led by Elite's cap­tain. Recog­nis­ing the cham­pi­onship slip­ping away, Singh be­came a more ag­gres­sive play­er, dri­ving re­lent­less­ly, cre­at­ing space, hit­ting jump shots, and scor­ing or as­sist­ing on near­ly every Elite pos­ses­sion.

​The third quar­ter was not just a mo­men­tum swing; it was a hos­tile takeover led by Elite's cap­tain and team­mate Je­lani Val­ley. Recog­nis­ing the cham­pi­onship slip­ping away, Singh and Val­ley be­came more ag­gres­sive as they drove re­lent­less­ly, and hit jump­shots, while as­sist­ing on near­ly every Elite pos­ses­sion.

​With Val­ley (19 points) pro­vid­ing time­ly sup­port, Singh or­ches­trat­ed a bril­liant come­back. Elite erased the deficit, and for the first time since the open­ing min­utes, the chal­lenger took the lead. The score­board read 55-52 in favour of Elite head­ing in­to the de­ci­sive fourth quar­ter.

​The fi­nal ten min­utes were an all-out bat­tle. Dex­troy Man­swell (11) tried des­per­ate­ly to ral­ly Po­lice, but every time he and his team­mates pushed, Singh had an an­swer. His lead­er­ship was ev­i­dent not just in scor­ing, but in com­mand­ing the pace and en­sur­ing the Elite de­fence held strong, forc­ing tough, con­test­ed shots from Po­lice. Singh proved too much for the ti­tle hold­er.

​As the buzzer sound­ed, the fi­nal score read 76-68 in favour of Elite, cap­tur­ing the Cham­pi­onship Di­vi­sion crown.

Guerero praised the ef­forts of Elite's game five's lead­ing scor­ers and their team­mate, Ja­son Fri­day, who was al­so key in the oth­er two wins.

She said, "Val­ley, Singh and Fri­day led us to that chip! Tremen­dous ef­fort and a great run!"

Guerero's South­side Elite al­so fin­ished run­ners-up in the Men's Un­der-23 Di­vi­sion, be­hind win­ner Point Fortin Vet­er­ans Bas­ket­ball Acad­e­my (PFVB­BA), which won their best-of-three se­ries, 2-1.

In the ​U-17 Boys' Di­vi­sion, Bronx com­plet­ed an un­de­feat­ed run to se­cure the ti­tle ahead of Ad­vanced Ge­net­ics, sweep­ing their three-match fi­nal se­ries, 2-0.

Seal­ing the U-19 Women's ti­tle was Club En­ter­prise against Ed­in­burgh Bas­ket­ball Acad­e­my, 2-0 in their se­ries fi­nal.

​Re­sults

​South Side Elite 76 (Tyrik Singh 32, Je­lani Val­ley 19) vs Po­lice 68 (Mika­hail Williams 20, Fab­rice Fish­er 18, Dex­troy Man­swell 11). Quar­ters: 1st 16-11 (Po­lice), 2nd 36-31 (Po­lice), 3rd 55-52 (Elite).