Adenta Leopards secured its first ever win over Braves of Customs in the Accra Basketball League (ABL) Men’s Division I thanks to a 65-57 win earlier tonight.
The win came at the Prisons Court in Cantonments, Accra in Game One of the ongoing 2019 League Playoffs Finals between the two teams; the winner is to be decided in a best of three game series.
Game 2 is on Saturday, November 16 at the Lebanon House Court in Tudu at 18:00 GMT after Braves play Ghana Police Service in Game 2 of the Women’s Division Final.
After several missed opportunities to beat Braves in previous contests, Adenta finally got over the hump by playing a solid game from start to finish.
Leopards led throughout the entire contest which was unsurprisingly physical and had a few players sustain cuts as a result.
For the second playoff game in a row, Braves played without sharp shooter Baniba Dodzie and his absence was felt early on from the cold shooting Customs side.
On the other hand, Leopards had Shooting Guard Thomas Amedeku present and he scored a pair of three pointers to give Adenta a 12-6 first quarter lead.
As in the first round win over Tema Youth, Braves snapped out of a funk with Kofi Asirifi leading the way with shots from deep; Mutaleeb Alhassan bagged a couple of three point shots.
Leopards led 54-51 with 3:04 minutes left to play before Kontor Appiah scored an uncontested three point shot to put Adenta up by six points. Kwame Opoku and Appiah scored late on to seal the win.
By Yaw Adjei-Mintah
@YawMintYM on Twitter
