Upper Room Eagles, Urban Knights to lock horns in NBL mid-season final
Published:Wednesday | August 30, 2023 | 12:13 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
UPPER ROOM Eagles and Urban Knights will lock horns in the National Basketball League’s (NBL) mid-season final after ending the first half of the season in first and second place, respectively.
The Eagles, who have won seven of their nine games, will meet a Knights team who confirmed their spot following a 72-60 victory over the Portmore Flames unit last Tuesday.
The prolific pair of Romone Spence, with a game-high 23 points and nine assists and Omar Barnes with 15 points and 11 rebounds did the bulk of the damage for the Oniel Brown-coached Urban Knights. Coach Brown said it took a total team effort to get over the lines at the Flames, as along with a change in their defensive scheme, he even took some advice from one of his players.
“We changed up some stuff defensively and I think that made the separation. I’m a coach that is willing to listen to my players, so one of them brought a thought that we could implement different things and I worked with it as we trust each other,” he shared.
With their mindset now shifts towards taking on the high-flying Upper Room Eagles team, Brown believes his Urban Knight unit are peaking at the perfect time.
COMFORTABLE
“We are comfortable with where we’re at currently with our 7-1 record. We made some short-term goals that we wanted to make the mid-season final and we’ve achieved that goal, so we are looking to win it. The Upper Room Eagles are the only team to beat us and a lot of things were said, so my team are raring to play against them,” said Brown.
The Eagles, who are coached by Simon Brown, believe in their mix of youth and experience. They also believe they are super fit, which gives them a significant advantage.
“The one thing that I know we do right is that we run well. We are a very fit team as we have a mixture of youth and experience. The players that have the experience are in shape because they’ve been playing a lot of basketball, while the youth that we have are also in shape,” said Simon Brown.
Simon Brown said he’s pleased with the growth of the Eagles since their debut in the league back in 2015.
“We also play tenacious defence and I think that is what has kept us in the games. Upper Room Eagles is a team that’s coming from being one of the easiest teams to beat in Division 1 and qualifying for the NBL in 2015. Since then, we’ve grown and to be part of the mid-season final is not only an achievement for me and the players, but for the club and institution,” Simon Brown explained.
The mid-season final will be played on September 3 at the National Stadium court with action set to tip off at 7:30 p.m.