Elite Horizon claim back-to-back Elite League titles
Published:Tuesday | January 31, 2023 | 1:16 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
Elite Horizon were crowned 2023 Elite 1 Caribbean Basketball League champions following their 113-89 victory over the Elite Storm on Sunday night at the National Arena.
The Horizon, who entered as favourites, were led to victory by in-form point guard Bobby Gray who registered a game-high 45 points and also dished out six assists and made two steals.
For the Storm, their offence was stifled throughout the evening’s encounter as only two players registered double-digit scoring with 30 points coming from Da’Rell Dominik and 22 from Jaryn Johnson. Head coach of the title winning Horizon, Cleon Morgan, lauded the performance of his charges throughout the championships.
“We had done it in the summer and with this being the winter league, we were able to pull off another championship win again. Even though we started off sloppy, I felt we picked up the pace and then took the lead and held it all the way to the end of the game. We had identified that they (Elite Storm) were moving the ball one way as a team, and of course we came out with a strategy to stop that and as a result we were able to pull away from them,” said Morgan.
Head coach of the Elite Storm, Oneil Brown, said his team lost the battle at the guard position and lauded the performance of Da’Rell Dominik who fought hard to keep his team in the matchup.
“I’m disappointed in my team, if it wasn’t for Da’Rell we would have been down early by 40 points and the game would have been long over. It has been a good season, with ups and downs and I’m looking forward for next year,” said Brown.
Founder of the Elite 1 Caribbean Basketball League,Wayne Dawkins, labelled the 2023 season as a success.
“The level of talent that we were able to attract was extremely high, the coaching staff did a phenomenal job and I was pleased with the media attention. If you look at the Horizon team that won, you’re talking about a team that had eight Caribbean players and that says a lot, they delivered for the Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean,” said Dawkins.
In the third and fourth place play-off, Elite Waves got the better of Elite Rivers 110-86 with Lushane Wilson leading the way with 27 points. The defeat for the Rivers meant they ended the championship winless from eight games.