Despite hobbling around on one leg for most of the night, Diasti Delancey came up big when her team needed her the most, to preserve a 68-63 win over the Career Builders Cheetahs last night, wrapping up the New Providence Women's Basketball Association (NPWBA) Championship series, three games to two.
The series and the game went down to the wire and Delancey showed that her coach's decision to go with her for much of the fourth quarter and the entire overtime session was the right one. Initially, after bumping into Cheetahs' forward Phylicia Kelly in the second quarter and injuring her knee, she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to continue. Not only did she weather the storm, but she came up with the game's two biggest plays in the overtime session.
With the Bommer G. Operators nursing a one-point lead, 64-63, in overtime, Delancey found Suzette McKenzie along the baseline for a short jumper with the shot and game clock winding down.
That gave the Operators a 66-63 lead with just 17.3 seconds left in the overtime session, and with the two-time champions looking for a response, Delancey slithered herself between two Cheetahs, came up with a huge steal and drove to the basket for an uncontested lay-up. That basket with just 1.8 seconds left on the clock sealed the game and the championship series for the Operators, giving them their second title in the past four years. They lost to the Cheetahs in the past two finals.
"It feels real good. Sharelle was out and I just had to step up," said an exhausted Delancey last night. Their captain Sharelle Cash fouled out with the Cheetahs ahead 49-48, and 2:44 remaining in regulation. "I wasn't worried at all," said Delancey. "I knew that we would execute down the stretch. We've been in this position before, so it was just a matter of stepping up," she added.
Delancey finished the game with 11 points, four assists and three steals. She sat out the entire third quarter and most of the fourth after injuring her knee in the second period, but came back late in the fourth quarter to lead her team to victory. With her gutsy performance, Delancey earned Most Valuable Player (MVP) honors.
"She has the heart of a champion. She saw that her team was in trouble and she gave it one more shot," said Operators' Head Coach Donillo 'Donnie' Culmer last night. "What can I say? Diasti and the rest of the girls just dug down deep and we came out victorious. They have three players who they could go to, Annie, Linda or Kelly, and when the two of them fouled out, we knew that we were in control. We just stood in there and hung tough," he added.
The Cheetahs three top scorers all fouled out last night. Phylicia Kelly led them with 18 points before fouling out with her team down 62-60, and 1:44 remaining in overtime. Anastasia Sands-Moultrie and Alyse Dean, who scored 11 points apiece, both fouled out in the fourth quarter, Sands-Moultrie on a questionable call late in the game. Linda Pierre, who converted a huge three-point play with 41.4 seconds remaining in overtime to bring the Cheetahs within 64-63, had 10 points last night.
Pierre's basket and ensuing free shot would be the last points of the game for the Cheetahs, as Delancey's assist to McKenzie padded the lead to three, and then her steal and break away lay-up sealed the game and championship.
Malesha Peterson led the Operators with 18 points last night. Delancey and Cash added 11 apiece, and Kaylisa Laing came up with nine big points off the bench.
"We just made some silly mistakes in the last part of the game and that caused us tonight. Also, we just didn't have our people on the court to make the right decisions at the end of the game. Losing those three players to fouls really caused us," said Cheetahs' Head Coach Mario Bowleg. "Our girls turned the ball over at the wrong time, and they capitalized off that. Congratulations to them. They wanted it more, and they won the game," he added.
The game was close throughout until the Operators took a double-digit lead in the third quarter. Still, the two-time champs wouldn't relinquish their title so easily. They battled back to eventually pull even in the fourth, and went ahead on some clutch free throw shotting from Sands-Moultrie. After the Operators took a 57-55 lead on one of two free shots from McKenzie, Cheetahs' forward Kelly found Pamela Bethel all alone under the basket for an uncontested lay-up with just five seconds left on the clock.
The Operators failed to get a shot off, and the game went into overtime. The Cheetahs went up by three points early in the overtime session, but despite missing five of six free shots, the Operators battled back. Delancey put them ahead 62-60 as she banked in a driving lay-up, Peterson came up with a big lay-up to give them a 64-60 lead, and after Pierre's three-point play, Delancey's two clutch plays won the championship for the Operators.
The Operators will now go on to represent New Providence in the Bahamas Basketball Federation's (BBF) National Championships.

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