Ashaiman Lions and Nungua Coldstore will play Game 2 of the Tema Community Basketball League Finals Series later today at the Community 4 Basketball Court right after Flashlights of Tema New Town does same against Community 12 at 14:30 GMT.
A win for Flashlights and Nungua ends the series with both sides earning third and first place respectively. Nungua will be desperate to end the series not only to win the maiden edition of the league, but also hammer the final nail over an Ashaiman side it is all too familiar with.
Lions roster is filled with players who played in last season’s flagship competition-Rush Community League-for Ashaiman Tigers. Elvis Pobi-Siaw, Daniel Amartey, Abdul Bashiru, John Teye Okumoh, 2016 High School Male Player of the Year Dennis Dugbennu, and Phillip Amalor among others competed for the side that placed second in the competition.
On its way to clinching the silver medal, Ashaiman beat a Sakumono Chargers side 89-72 which featured members of the Nungua team it comes face to face with including Josiah Karikari, Kwame Boamah Djan and Nana Owusu Afriyie.
The very physical matchup had Afriyie exit the game with a serious chest injury and Amalor suffer lacerations to his face. Amartey notched 14 points before fouling out. Backcourt teammate Pobi-Siaw scored a game high 31 points on that night.
In the lead up to the Finals, Coldstore beat Lions 47-37 in the final game of the Tema League postseason curtain raiser-Basketball Battle- final game which will be best remembered for a vicious dunk by Kofi Agyei on Amalor.
Should Lions win today, the series gets evened up for Game 3 but another win for Coldstore ends the rivalry at least till next season.
