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For many coaches, winning the first game of a best-of-three basketball series would bring some measure of relief. But Simon Brown, head coach of Upper Room Eagles, knows the job is not yet done as they face a tough task to defeat UWI Runnin’ Rebels for the second night in a row.
“We’re not satisfied yet, the only thing that will satisfy us is when we make it to the finals. Yes, it’s game one of the series and yes, we are pleased to get the advantage, but this is far from over.”
Upper Room Eagles got the better of UWI Runnin’ Rebels 66-63 in the opening game of Thursday night’s double header at the National Stadium courts in the National Basketball League (NBL) semi-finals to take game one.
In the second game on the court, defending champions Urban Knights took the early advantage as they turned back St George’s Slayers 78-59 in comfortable fashion.
Upper Room Eagles started the afternoon strong, taking the first quarter of the contest by outshooting their opponents 18-11.
That momentum was swiftly derailed as the Rebels roared back to life in the second quarter, taking the lead 27-32.
The Eagles would regain their control, however, and won the game with just seconds left on the clock as they saw out their three-point win.
Lebron Lewinson was the Eagles’ top performer, scoring 14 points, with David Thomas and Derjean Royal contributing with 10 each.
Speaking after the match, Brown was not pleased with his team’s inconsistency across all four quarters, but found some solace in their response throughout the final quarter.
“To be honest, I’m not fully pleased with the performance. The intensity that we showed in the first and the fourth quarters, if we had shown that in the second and the third, then this game would have been over a lot earlier,” he said.
“We’re not here to entertain people, we’re here to win a trophy. However, I am happy that they listened to me in the fourth quarter and we made it over the line.”
MAKING ADJUSTMENTS
Brown said they will need to make the necessary adjustments ahead of the second game of the series tomorrow if they are to advance to the championship finals.
He is wary of a resurgent Rebels team who he believes has the ability to force a third game of the series.
“Now, we have to fix all those kinks because this team is very talented, but Rebels are also very talented,” he said.
“If we take Rebels lightly on Sunday, they can tie the series and push us into a third game and we don’t want that.
“They have a good coaching staff and an experienced team. They have players over there who even played for us at one point, so they know us and we know them.”
St George’s Slayers and Urban Knights will take to the court in their second game of the series at 6:15 p.m. tomorrow with the Eagles and Rebels featuring in the curtain-closer at 7:45 p.m.
English (US) ·