East 83 West 58

The East All-Stars erased last year's heartbreak with this emphatic 83-58 win over their West counterparts in the CellularOne Premier Basketball League All-Star game held at CedarBridge Academy.

With league play taking a break for the week, it was time for Bermuda's top basketball players to showcase their skills, along with a three-point competition.

Determined not to fall to a similar fate as last year's match, the East came out in dominating fashion, scoring the games first 14 points.

The West struggled to put the ball in the hole, missing a number of close lay-ups and uncontested jump shots that didn't help their cause.

Inspired by MVP Steve Simons, the East led 27-4 after 10 minutes of action.

Back-to-back lay-ups by the West's centre Jonathan Lowe slowed down the East 's hot shooting momentarily, but with little help from his team-mates the East continued their thrashingf.

Terrance Dill and Simons scored 31 points between them in the first half to give the East a convincing 46-18 lead at the break.

In the second half, West picked up the tempo and started the half on a 12-4 run in the early minutes.

But just as West began chipping away at the lead, a steal by the East's Mike Smith led to an emphatic reverse dunk by centre Dean Jones that brought the crowd to their feet.

With 10 minutes remaining, Jones collected a loose ball and tried to bring the rim down again to slow the West's momentum and push his team's lead back to 20 points.

A three-pointer by Simons followed by a floater in the key added to his game-high 29 points.

Lowe continued to dominate in the paint, scoring 11 points in the second half but despite the West's much improved second half, the prolific scoring of Simons and Dill proved to be too much.

Simons was named the All-Star MVP with 29 points and seven rebounds while Dill shipped in with 20.

Lowe was the top man for the West, scoring 21 points.

n In the three-point competition, Phil Davis, Khaivon Brown, Shannon Thompson and brother Jason Simons all sought to dethrone Steven Simons of his title – and it was Thompson who prevailed.

Starting off the tournament was Davis, the leading three-point shooter from Pembroke Cane Toads.

Known for his long range abilities, he struggled on the first rack but would sink the money ball on the second and end the round sinking three consecutive shots to finish with a score of seven.

Brown, the Paget Bearcats trigger man, sank two out of his five balls on the first two racks and finished the round with seven points as well, while Simons, whose known for his ability to score from the arc, only completed three racks but hit two key money ball shots to give him a score of eight points.

Thompson, the only spark on the winless Rim Rockers so far, hit his first two shots and sank the money ball on the first rack to score four quick points. His best rack was at the top of the key where he made three out of five shots. He finished up with 10 points, securing his spot in the final round.

The defending champ, Simons, quickly showed why he was a fan favourite, hitting his first three shots and the money ball on the first rack. He continued his hot shooting to score 12 points to advance to a final shoot-off against Thompson.

Electing to shoot first, Simons started off slowly, only hitting one shot on the first rack before picking up the tempo on the third, hitting two consecutive shots and the money ball.

As time elapsed on the clock, Simons quickly rushed to get through the fourth rack without sinking a shot to finish with eight points.

Thompson continued where he left off in the first round, sinking one basket and the money ball on the first rack to pick up three points.

On the third rack, his streak continued as he hit three out of five balls and the money ball to surpass Simons' score.

Thompson went on to hit two more baskets, giving him 12 points and this year's title.