Panthers, Police begin Thomme Cabalan tourney on positive note

Panthers made a blistering start to the 2012 Thomme Cabalan memorial tournament by whitewashing Fire Service 81-38 on Monday.

The Tema-based side made nonsense of the challenge of their opponent and made them to sweat in the four quarters as they run riot to begin their journey to success on a positive note.

Parading a host of experienced players including Jake Morrison and Feranmi Olulunyo, Panthers looked overly impressive and too strong for their opponent as they ditched them at the Lebanon court in the capital.

Fire’s display was characterized by no-look assists, alley-oops passes for thunderous dunks and sublime ball-handling which drew ‘ooh’s and ‘ah’s from an enthusiastic crowd on the opening day of action in the men’s category.

Fire’s preparations for the Games was hampered due to problems with several of their top players, kept it close in the early going before the Panthers team cut loose.

The men in Blue blew it open 34-18 in the first quarter by scoring the first 15 points of the second quarter and then raised their game even higher.

Morrison led the way with 20 points, with Olulonyo coming off the bench to contribute 14 inside points.

Emmanuel Osei put nine points on the scoreboard, but had a hand in a number of highlight moments, making jaw-dropping bounces pass through traffic covering two-thirds of the court to hit Moses going to the basket.

After one nifty, no-look drop off pass from Feranmi, Morrison finished at the hoop with a ferocious slam that moved him to hang swaying from the rim for an extra few seconds to celebrate.

Next up for Panthers will be Police Service on Wednesday.

In the opening game of the day, Police beat Holy Family 70-55 in another exciting contest.

Tuesday’s fixtures will see defending champions in the women’s division CEPS take on newly-formed Galaxy in the first game at 14 hours (2pm local time).

Yotive will battle Magic with Reformers squaring off with Warriors in the last game.