The much awaited 2016 Accra Basketball League Men’s Division I postseason has tipped off at the Lebanon House Court with highly fancied Braves of Customs-Tema Youth duo earning wins on the first day of the opening round.
On the other hand, the teams they beat Teshie Rangers and DC Dynamics respectively, opened their debut Division I postseason accounts with losses to the aforementioned teams with Rangers losing 41-66 to Braves and DC losing 42-47 to Tema.
Tema and Braves have already qualified to compete in the upcoming FIBA Zone 3 African Championship slated to take place later this month in Lome, Togo after featuring in last season’s top two spots.
Both teams showed a lot of resilience by taking the division’s top two sides head on beginning with Rangers who suffered a humiliating 36-100 loss to Braves in the regular season but competed well to keep themselves in the games despite trailing 42-21 at the end of the second half.
Rangers play is more commendable considering highly rated Shooting Guard Gabriel Numarworse missed the game.
DC Dynamics took the novices intensity a step further as the side battled hard into the night to narrowly miss out on a stunning win after recovering from 21-42 half time deficit.
The game could have been heading to overtime with less than two minutes left to play had DC Guard not miss all three shots from the free throw line to tie the score at 45 after getting fouled on a three point attempt.
Both teams are set to play against losers of today’s games between Ghana Navy-Fire Service and Tudu Magic-Reformers of Prisons on October 7 at the same venue.