By Neto Baptiste
Coach of the EZ Fit Flyers Basketball outfit, George Hughes, said that although his team welcomes a third straight Playoffs title and will celebrate the achievement accordingly, he is cognisant that their reign will end at some point.
Flyers beat rivals Potters Steelers 3-2 in their best of five Playoffs Finals series to claim a third straight title last week, further establishing their dominance on the basketball scene here in Antigua.
“We recognize that at some point, this is going to be over because there is going to a team that comes, figures out everything and beats us but until then, we want to try and stack as many as we can. But we know this run has to come to an end so it’s just a matter or ratio so up until then, we want to just try to win as much as possible. We know and we have to prepare ourselves mentally that at some time or the other, this is going to come to an end,” he said.
Flyers claimed the first two games to go two-nil up in the series before Steelers rebounded to take games three and four and level the series. Flyers however claimed a comfortable 90-73 victory in game five to wrap up the series.
Hughes said the aim was to close out the series in game four but credited Steelers for staying the course and forcing a game five.
“We lost momentum in the second game [that we lost] when we were up 20-something points and then we allowed them to come back into the game and I think that at that point, they felt in their minds that they had a chance. We had beaten them soundly in the first game and the second game in a five-game series is a very pivotal game because it either puts you 2-0 up or it puts you 1-1 and that puts you back into a three-games series. I keep telling them that game two is very pivotal because it shifts the balance of power either way or it neutralizes the whole thing,” the coach said.
Meanwhile, the experienced Adonis Humphreys who was named MVP of both the league and the playoffs, downplayed the achievement, stating that his focus was on achieving team goals.
“I don’t usually play for MVP, probably in the school league days, so I mostly focus on playing the game, getting most rebounds or blocks and try to help the team in different ways that are within the team’s benefit. I believe in playing the right way and you’ll be rewarded accordingly so I never try to go outside of the team because when you have those kind of selfish goals, they kind of affect the team so you want to make sure that everything is within the team,” he said.
In game five, Humphreys top-scored with 22 points on 10 of 17 shooting, hitting one of three from beyond the three-point line. The national player also grabbed 15 rebounds in the process.
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