In a game they needed to win yesterday, the Xavier's Giants came out and laid it all out on the line against the St. Bede's Crushers. Both teams find themselves in the middle of the pack jostling for the final playoff spot in the Catholic Primary Schools Basketball League. The Crushers got the better of the Giants in their first match-up of the season but the Giants leapfrogged them in the standings yesterday, with a convincing 30-18 win. With the win, the Giants improved to a 4-5 win/loss record on the season and into the fourth and final playoff spot in the standings while the Crushers fell to 2-4.
"The first time we played St. Bede's, they beat us, so I just told the guys that we needed to get this win today," said Giants' Head Coach Nelson Joseph. "With our two big guys, I just told them that if they came to play no one could stop us. They came out strong defensively, and that led to good production on the offensive side. This just goes to show what we are capable of doing when we come to play. Hopefully, we could win our final game and secure a playoff spot. Once we do that, anything can happen in the playoffs," he added.
The Giants will be off for two weeks before playing their final regular season game, against the 1-6 St. Thomas More Sparks. The Crushers have four more games on their schedule. "We have to go out there and play hard. We just can't look at St. Thomas More's record and think that's an easy win because all of the teams are pretty much balanced this year and any team can win on any given day," said Joseph. "I think that if we play like how we did today, especially defensively, we should be alright though. The competition this year is pretty good. Any team could beat any team on any given day, so you have to come ready to play at all times."
At 2-4, the Crushers find themselves in fifth spot in the standings and still have games remaining against the league-leading Our Lady's Blue Flames and the defending champions St. Cecilia's Strikers. As for the Giants, a win in their final game should wrap up a playoff spot and a date against one of those two teams in the playoffs."St. Cecilia's have a tough team and Our Lady's have a tough team. I think that when we come to play we match up well against anybody, so it's just a matter of us coming to play," he said. "We know what we're capable of doing but if we don't come to play, we will be beaten. That's just how it is this year - the league is very competitive," added Joseph.
The Giants were led in scoring by Jamal Davis with 13 points yesterday. Tyrique Tynes added eight. No player scored in double figures for the Crushers. Lavardo Dean paced them in scoring with seven points yesterday and Jordan Freemantle added five. The Giants led, 7-6, after the first quarter and never looked back. They increased that lead to 15-10 at the half, and surged ahead 22-14 at the end of three. The cushion proved to be too big for the Crushers to mount a comeback in the final quarter.
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