Jerome Nathaniel scorched the nets for 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Guidance to a 93-85 victory over Boys Dem on Wednesday at the Ronald Charles gymnasium. The victory helped Guidance avoid being swept out of the New Breed Basketball 2012 finals and the team now looks to even the series at two games apiece on Friday.
Down 2-0 in the best of five finals, Guidance knew exactly what was at stake when they took the floor at RCG on Wednesday: Win or face the humiliation of being swept 3-0 in the NBBA finals.
They played with an urgency of a team that knew that their backs were against the wall and took the opening quarter 30-27, behind 12 and 10 points respectively from Ryan Rawlins and Nathaniel.
The team continued its stellar play in the second quarter scoring 24 points while defensively holding Boys Dem to just 13, to set the lead to 14 points at the half, 54-40.
The teams played to a stalemate in the third quarter as they both netted 21 points in the period, which meant the Guidance lead was still 14 points at the end of three quarters at 75-61.
Boys Dem made a run in the fourth quarter, getting to within four points of the lead at one point, but Guidance was able to weather that storm to gradually pull away late for a 98-85 victory, living to fight another day.
Along with Nathaniel, Guidance got good offensive support from Rawlins who netted 23 points, Stephaun Adams with 15 and Raydell Dennis who finished with 11 points and 17 rebounds.
Boys Dem figures were led by Rasheed Swanston with 26 points, Wilson Ferrance with 15, Saleem Ross with 12, and Zomari Swanston finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
It must be mentioned that both teams played with one sub on their benches as both rosters have been severely decimated by the return of some players to stateside schools. It will be interesting to see how the finals end up should there be any more defections.
