St. George's 68

Paget Bearcats 60

Chris Crumpler's 48 points was not enough to help Paget Bearcats beat former champions St. George's International to book their place in the semi-finals at the weekend.

Crumpler was determined to put on a scoring clinic against the second-seeded International, attacking the rim in the early minutes and scoring his team's first eight points of the game.

With St. George's centre Charjuan Knight absent, Crumpler took full advantage of the missing 6'4" big man.

St. George's guards Damon Saunders and Jonathan Lugo kept their team in front for most of the first half with their accurate shooting.

St. George's then went on a 12-4 run to give them a 31-23 half time lead.

After trading baskets in the first three minutes of the second half, St George's pushed their lead to double digits after capitalising on a series of offensive rebounds by Dean Jones. With an essential timeout called by the Bearcats, Crumpler implored his team to step up the defensive intensity against their opponents.

Responding to Crumpler's plea, the Bearcats defence ignited, resulting in a series of defensive stops and forced turnovers which saw St. George's double-digit lead evaporate.

As the momentum shifted in the Bearcats' favour, Lugo quickly took the wind out of the Bearcats' sails after hitting a three pointer followed by a lay-up to give St. George's a comfortable lead with eight minutes remaining.

Lugo continued to shoot the lights out from the field scoring 14 of his game high points.

Paget would rally back with five minutes remaining after Crumpler hit back-to-back field goals, pulling his team within eight points of their opposition.

Jones responded with an emphatic dunk down the lane to push his team's lead back to double digits.

With one minute and thirty seconds remaining, Paget pulled within their closest margin of the half, 61-57, after Juron Tucker connected on a three point play, scoring at the rim and at the free throw line after being fouled.

Crumpler then missed two crucial free throws that could have pulled his team within one point. Despite a 48 point effort by Crumpler, tying his own Premier Basketball League most points scored in a game, Paget were unable to pull off the upset against St. George's.

St. George's leading scorers were Lugo (24) and Saunders (21).

Hamilton Parish 56

Hamilton Tsunamis 52

Defending champions Hamilton Parish Chargers continued their march to another title with a win over the Hamilton Tsunamis to advance to the semi-finals.

The Chargers took an early 12-2 lead and despite the offensive power of the Tsunami's Greg Todd and Graham Robinson, Parish continued to score.

Parish Captain Mike Smith said: "Although we struggled during the regular season, it's play-off time and we are definitely not prepared to hand over our title without a fight."

The Chargers showed their tenacity maintaining a comfortable lead and connecting on their final three field goals to give them a 37-25 lead at the half.

In the second half, the Tsunamis came out on fire with Robinson hitting a pair of three point baskets followed by a lay-up at the rim by Josh Nesbitt to pull within four points.

The Tsunamis zone defence appeared to cause great difficulty for the Chargers as their shots were frequently contested altered or forced with the shot clock winding down.

As Che' Powell entered the game his impact was quickly felt as he hit back to back shots to give Chargers a 52- 46 lead with four minutes remaining.

With Tsunami scoring guard Charles Peters forced out of the game due to a knee injury, the depleted Tsunamis put the ball in Robinson's hands who hit a baseline jump shot and found Greg Todd for an open layupt to bring his team within four points with two minutes remaining.

Despite trailing by only four points, Robinson was unable to continue as he suffered a hamstring injury in the final minutes of action.

With key injuries to the Tsunamis backcourt players, despite only scoring 19 points in the second half, the Chargers were able to advance to the semi-finals.

Che' Powell led the Chargers with 19 points and Lavar Powell chipped in with 10, while Robinson and Todd contributed 23 and 20 respectively.