Adenta Leopards shook off a slow start in the opening minutes of its entertaining matchup against Ghana Fire Service to secure a comfortable 91-65 win.
The win qualifies Leopards to the 2019 Accra Basketball League (ABL) Men’s Division I final and the game took place at the Lebanon House Court in Tudu.
Leopards will compete in the best of a three game finals series against the winner of the Tema Youth-Braves of Customs matchup later today at 18:00 GMT in Tudu.
Emmanuel Ocquaye scored four points and David Okoe Laryea drained a three pointer for Fire. Muhaimin Guba got points for Leopards in a frantic opening minutes. Dennis Dugbennu added a layup off a drive to put Fire up 10-4 with 6:21 to play. Philip Amralo kicked the ball out for an athletic layup from Dugbennu.
Kwame Opoku scored a jump shot and Kontor Appiah added a three pointer in a good run for Adenta. Fred Asante converted all three free throws and Leslie Alhassan kicked the ball out for an Appiah three pointer. Fire responded with a deep shot from Daniel Amartey and another Dugbennu layup. Asante scored a short jump shot to end the first quarter with Fire leading 24-21.
Asante delivered a behind the back pass for Opoku to score an easy layup and a three pointer from Guba put Leopards up 27-25. Fire turned the ball over on several possessions and Leopards capitalized to score points. Appiah scored a three point shot with Asante scoring off drives to the basket. Leopards led 46-33 at the end of the first half.
Thomas Amedeku scored a jumper for Adenta and Fire had Ocquaye and John Okumoh completed three point plays respectively. David Pinto tipped in an offensive rebound. Dugbennu went coast to coast to score a layup but Guba was the main star late in the quarter scoring six points including an up and under layup. Appiah scored a three pointer from the top of the key in a 64-45 lead.
Leopards took advantage of an out of sorts Fire side to stretch its lead to 74-48 with 7:40 minutes remaining. Asante and Appiah bagged three pointers and Asante’s off balance jumper capped a strong run for Leopards. Dugbennu went on a 10 point run and Amartey bagged a pair of three pointers as Leopards at will with Fire turning the ball over many times.
By Yaw Adjei-Mintah
@YawMintYM on Twitter
