Basketball: Curtain-raiser competition-Mont Fleuri upset Bel Air to reach women’s final |20 March 2006

With just six players, Mont Fleuri, captained by Bernadette Songor, dethroned defending champions Bel Air on Saturday at Victoria Gymnasium. The final score was 45-43.

Drawn straight into the semifinal, Mont Fleuri got a game-high 17 points from former Seychelles international Tracey Moustache, while Songor and playmaker Marline Isidore scored 10 apiece.

Burtina Désir led Bel Air in scoring with 11 points.

The Mont Fleurians’ opponents in the final were to be known yesterday when last year’s losing finalists were to play Hackers.

In the men’s competition last Friday at the Palais des Sports, defending champions Premium Cobras made a dramatic comeback to bridge a 20-point deficit and beat rivals PLS Hawks in a quarterfinal match.

Under the captaincy of James Beier, scorer of 21 points, Premium Cobras trailed 67-70 with 59 seconds left on the clock and veteran centre Lenny Aglaé brought his experience and composure into the match, hitting a 3-pointer to equalise at 70-70 before netting two free-throws for five of his 19 points.

Nigerians Reuben Kolawole and Mohamed Buhari Ozegya got 12 and 10 points respectively in new coach Jude Talma’s second consecutive win over the Hawks.
Ugandan all-rounder Stephen Omony had 28 points in a lost cause for the Hawks who were beaten by the same Premium Cobras in the semifinal in last year’s edition of the competition.

In today’ semifinal, Premium Cobras play Baya, 96-34 winners of the Bel Air derby against Bel Air Blazers.

Losing finalists last year, Baya were paced by playmaker Giovanni Laval with 20 points and Bernard Cherry chipped in with 18. Captain Michael Cupidon (16 points), Steve Denis (15 points) and Nigerian Ugoh (12 points) were the three other Baya players who scored in double digits.

With skipper Dave Roseline out injured, Baya must surely have something special in store for their former coach Jude Talma.

RC Dynamics are also in the semifinal after beating SMB Razorback 79-67 but their opponents were to be known yesterday when Angels were to play Ex-Champs.
RC Dynamics were given a scare by SMB who closed a 12-point deficit midway through the third quarter.

But in the end, coach Jim Domingue, who had finished on the losing end with PLS Hawks against Premium Cobras the day before, was able to inject some vitality into his players down the stretch.

Tony Marday led RC Dynamics in scoring with a game-high 24 points. Skipper Hendricks Denis got 12, while Jean-Paul Desaubin and Terry Porice netted 10 points apiece.

Sharp-shooter Jean-Paul Camille led all scores with 27 points, including three 3-pointers, but his effort wasn’t enough to stop SMB Razorback from bowing out of the competition.

G. G.