Basketball in Africa

PREMIUM COBRAS are in tomorrow’s men’s final of the Curtain-raiser tournament and they will surely be going all-out to defend their title won in 2009.

In Wednesday’s semifinal, coach Guy Hall’s team were never in trouble against MBU Rockers, who had needed two overtimes (OTs) to dispatch Mont Fleuri Dawgz 93-92 in Monday night’s quarterfinal encounter.

With their starting five netting 62 points, the Cobras dominated the Rockers to win all four quarters – 20-10, 22-19, 25-9 and 16-10 – for an 83-48 victory.

Nigerian playmaker Michael Oko Ohiero was once again in scoring mood for Premium Cobras with a game-leading 24 points, including two 3-pointers. Danny Bertin banked four treys for 12 points and Darren Lesperance shot the lights out three times for nine of his 15 points.

Skipper and power forward Dominic Pillay made a 14-point contribution in the win that propelled the defending champions into the final against the winners of last night’s other semifinal between Baya and Razors.

The match was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed after one of the referees did not turn up.

Back to Wednesday’s game, MBU Rockers totally lost the plot as not one of their players scored in double figures. Their highest scorer was Brian Morel with nine points – three treys – and playmaker Nigel Sinon added eight, as did forward Nigel ‘Jah’ Henriette.

The women’s final is between defending champions Anse Etoile Stars and HotShots. The two powerhouses made another trip to the final in different styles.

While the Stars edged Mont Fleuri 49-48 thanks to Malagasy Miantratsiory Rakotomahadimby’s late 3-pointer, league and cup champions HotShots posted an easy 53-28 win over Juniors.

G. G.