By LeVaughn Flynn, Staff Reporter
The Panthers' Kareem McFarlane is defended by Knights' Jomo Gordon (centre) and Andrei Grant during game three of their semi-final match on Wednesday night in the KFC/Cable & Wireless National Basketball League at the Stadium courts. Knights won 73-71 and meet St. George's Slayers in the best-of-three finals which - Ricardo Makyn / Staff Photographer
LINTON MURRAY placed his team on his shoulders and propelled Urban Knights to the National Basketball League (NBL) final after hitting two clutch free-throws and the game winning shot as they upset No. 1 seeds Blazing Panthers 73-71 in game three of their best-of-three semi-final play-off at the Stadium courts on Wednesday night.
Murray scored the most important two of his team-high 16 points with 6.7 seconds left in the game after he drove to the hoop from the right side and pulled up in the key for a short jumper.
"Murray is a prime-time player. He said 'Don't take me out of the game; I want to have the ball' and we gave it to him and he delivered," Knights assistant coach Kevin Alexander said.
Murray earlier sank two free-throws to give his team a 71-70 lead with under a minute to play. Panthers Dushane Whyte made one of two free-throws to even the score at 71 which led to Murray's response with the clutch shot.
CRUCIAL BASKETS
Lancelot Grandison, Fernando Young and Murray all made crucial baskets down the stretch with the lead being changed seven times in the final three minutes of the game. Grandison had 13 points and seven rebounds and Roderick Ingram posted 12 points and eight boards.
Apart from the opening and closing minutes of the game, Panthers led the whole game and finished the quarters on top 22-16, 35-32 and 58-52 and led by as many as 11 points (49-38) in the third quarter.
Panthers Dwayne Harris led all scorers with 20 points but was 3-14 from the field. Added to Harris' tough shooting night, Panthers committed 23 turnovers, seven more than Knights and were 5-11 from the free-throw line in the final quarter.
Their coach, Jason James, had a hard time embracing the notion that they were dismissed by Knights in their best-of-three series but he said it came down to execution in the final minutes.
"Execution," James uttered. "It just boils down to free-throws and they made theirs and we didn't. They got an uncontested shot at the very end which from the start we had been preaching no easy lay-ups and we gave up a basket," he said.
Kirk Ferguson added 18 points and Duken Brown 13 points for Panthers.
Knights meet St. George's Slayers tomorrow in the first game of the best-of-three final at the National Indoor Sports Centre.
