The Shining Stars Childhood Care and Education Centre are facing adversity.
Only one loss separates them from an opening round exit in division one of the Cayman Islands Basketball Association 2012 national men’s league. Game two of their best-of-three series with the Dominos Warriors is slated for this Sunday, 13 May, at 6.30pm.
Shining Stars players, like Stephen Shaw, are keen to step up in crunch time.
“All of us have to step up, not one man makes the team,” Shaw said. “Everyone has to step up. We can win this if we play as a team.”
Camana Bay’s Arts and Recreation Centre would see Dominos beat Shining Stars 92-84 last Sunday. The defending national champions had stellar showings from captain Collin Anglin (34 points off two three-pointers, seven rebounds and five assists) and Borislav Djordjic (who led all scorers with 39 points off three treys and 11 rebounds). Haymond Rankine combined with newcomer Jeremy Varlow to chip in 12 points, six assists and four rebounds.
The defeat was extra demoralizing for Shining Stars, as four players scored in double digits. Denton Cole was top scorer with 23 points (off three treys) and three steals. Curtis Wilson had his usual solid effort with 18 points, 15 rebounds. Two other role players stepped up in Adam Milburn (16 points with two treys and two assists) and Chester Hurlstone (10 points, four rebounds).
Shaw posted only six points and two rebounds in the contest and states the defeat came from a lack of hustle.
“We beat our own self. We got tired, didn’t focus on mistakes and gave up on plays. When we got tired, we were not pushing the ball. Though the refs made crappy calls, we had them going. We have a good, strong team and next game we will have them.”
Fatigue may have been a decisive factor on defence. Shining Stars only managed four steals in the contest, while Dominos had six steals and 10 blocks (interestingly, the Warriors had 16 turnovers while Shining Stars had seven errors).
If Shining Stars win Sunday’s game two at Camana Bay, they would force a game three next Sunday, 20 May. Both sides came into the series with identical 4-4 records along with the second and third seeds in the league.
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