Robert Bailey, Gleaner WriterIT WILL be do or die for Majesty Gardens and Liguanea Lions in game three of their LPG Insurance Southern Conference Basketball League semi-final at the National Stadium courts this evening at 6:00 p.m.
On Thursday night, Majesty Gardens evened the series at one-all after they registered a comfortable 91-63 win over the Lions in game two.
Spurred by a game-high 37 points and 13 rebounds from their inspirational captain Baldon Todd, they led from the opening whistle and the Liguanea team looked shell-shocked and didn't recover as Majesty Gardens opened up a 20-point lead at half-time, 47-27.
THEIR OWN WAY
Majesty Gardens had things pretty much their own way in the third quarter by pushing up their lead by five points to end the period 65-40.
Shortly after the resumption of the third quarter, the game was halted for approximately half an hour after a collision of players resulted in a brawl that included spectators.
Todd was well supported by teammate Kemar McLeish who sank 28 points and grabbed 15 rebounds and eight assists.
Prince Joseph was the top man for the losers with 17 points and five rebounds.
Captain of the Majesty Gardens team, Todd, is very confident going into tonight's game.
He said, "I am really very confident because I know we are the better team, all we have to do is just come out and play our game and I am sure we will be victorious come Saturday."
BLAZERS DEFEAT BRAVES CHIEFS
In the night's other semi-final game, Waterhouse Blazers defeated Braves Chiefs 77-64 to book their spot in the final.
Raymond Layne had a game-high 35 points and 23 rebounds for Waterhouse Blazers and he was well supported by teammate Kirk Shaw who also had 20 points. Player-coach Roger Marshall had 23 for Braves Chiefs.
Waterhouse coach Berris Easy said: "We were very confident but when one of our top players got injured mid-way the second quarter, I got a bit worried, but in the end we were able to pull through for a hard-fought victory and I am just looking ahead to the finals now."
Braves' Marshall said: "I am really disappointed with the way we played. Our rebounding was very poor, we committed a lot of unforced turnovers and also one of our top players didn't play in tonight's (Thursday) game and that was where we lost out big time."
