Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter
Denham Town Wizards' Dwayne Harris rocks the rim in National Basketball League action against the Portmore Flames last month. Harris' three first-quarter three-pointers got Denham Town off to a fast start in Sunday's game two encounter against St George's. - ANTHONY MINOTT/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
DEFENDING CHAMPIONS St. George's Slayers have their eyes set on a second consecutive appearance in the KFC/bMobile National Basketball League final, but first they must turn back a determined Denham Town Wizards when the teams meet in a decisive Game Three at the National Stadium courts tonight at 7:00.
The past two series have not been easy ones for the defending champions and it has really been a battle to have a shot at defending their title. In the first round they found themselves down 1-0 and facing a 13-point deficit in Game Three against the Link Up-All Stars. Against the Wizards they lost Game One and then trailed for most of Game Two, before a plucky fourth quarter led by Kali McCarthy saw them pull off the win, setting up today's decider.
"We haven't really been worried just yet and the team's only question when we lost to Denham Town was what time tonight's Game Three would be," said Slayers' coach, Winston Harvey, who saw his team triumph 76-71 in Sunday's Game Two at the National Indoor Sports Centre.
LIKE PULLING TEETH
"We keep starting slowly but it's like pulling teeth to get them to play well from the start of the last couple of games," Harvey said.
In fact, the Slayers might never have recovered if Denham Town's leading scorer and rebounder, Anthony Farquharson, had not gone down in the third quarter with an ankle injury.
"We really lost our focus and stopped rebounding when we lost Farquharson in Game Two," said the Wizards' coach, Wayne Bartley, who saw his team take a 1-0 lead in the series on Saturday, behind 25 points from Farquharson and 28 from Kirk Ferguson who is second in the team's scoring.
Farquharson will be a game-time decision for today's encounter, a fact which has Bartley concerned but remaining positive.
"If he doesn't play, it just means that the rest of the guys will have to step up. We will still give it 100 per cent," he said.
The winner of tonight's decider will meet Urban Knights in the finals which start on Saturday.
