Sunday 23rd Feb.
It was a big day for the DBA Cup, with the Finals day being held at Budmouth College, Weymouth.
It started with BU Performance taking on the Southbourne SwampDonkeys. However the Donkeys had recently suffered an ACL injury to Semi-finals MVP Ugnius Paulauskas and were left short handed. (We wish him well in his recovery). They struggled to get going, although were getting some good looks at the basket, their finishing let them down. Where as BU were shooting well, moving the ball and dominating the boards at both ends and looked in control for the 40 mins. It ended 52-101.
Then came the Cup Final between the Dorset Storm and South Coast Tigers. It was Storm who took the early lead through Pryer and Bishop. Mohet was big and powerful underneath for the Tigers and then Fernandez hit his first of 9 threes to put them up by 1; a lead they took in to the break after Q1, 24-23.
Finals MVP added 23pts in his tally in the second quarter alone, as the Tigers took the ascension into the break 57-45 after some great offensive rebound work underneath. The Storm kept in the game, visiting the line and keeping the score board ticking over but needed that little run to get themselves back to single figures.
Bishop and Pryer were plugging away underneath whilst Young and Pearson added buckets from range, but Mahinay couldn't find his normal range and had a quiet afternoon with 6pts. They had cut it to 6pts after 3, 82-76 to Tigers.
The 4th was a closer affair. Young added 2 from range to cut the lead but the Tigers continued to reply, again Fernandez hitting 3 more from distance. Storm had it back to 2 95-93 with a 1:35 to go, but the Tigers iced it from the line when it counted and closed the game 105-101 to take the win and the 2020 DBA Cup.
Roxys Finals MVP: A. Fernandez
[Tigers: Fernandez 43, Harvey 26, Mohet 19, Guiduci 10, Droynk 4, Short 1]
[Storm: Pryer 38, Young 20, Bishop 15, Old 15, Mahinay 6, Majome 4, Pearson 3]
