by BARRY ALLEYNE

SOLAR DYNAMICS CLAPHAM BULLS and Lumber Company Lakers have been two basketball heavyweights this year.

And in a match-up that could have earned some great pay-per-view dollars Tuesday night, the two teams combined to produce the best match of the Barbados Amateur Basketball Association's Sagicor/BOA Premier League season.

The YMCA is slowly but surely becoming the home of the sport again, and a large crowd was on hand to see the Bulls edge ahead the Lakers 82-78 to earn the best record in the league.

Not only did their win push the Bulls to 10-2 and dropped Lakers to 9-3, it also earned Clapham bragging rights should the two meet again, this time for silverware.

This was certainly a championship preview, and was played in a real play-off atmosphere.

There was brilliant shooting from the outside, strong play on the inside, flashy dunks, and even the occasional hard foul that had tempers flaring.

In the end, it was Clapham that showed the resolve when it mattered most.

The Bulls watched a 14-point half-time lead (40-26) disappear into a two-point deficit, until star player Jeremy Gill took over.

With his team star-gazing after Lakers had reduced the deficit and taken the lead, Gill, nicknamed "Bull", lived up to his pet name, showing why he's arguably the best player on local soil today.

Two strong drives to the basket earned him consecutive "and-ones" which were duly converted.

At the other end, Lakers capitulated in the final three minutes, and coach Francis Williams will certainly rue his team's shot selection in the final five minutes.

Unfortunately for the coach, two bad mistakes came from his best players on the night, Brian Armstrong and Adrian Allman.

Armstrong had been shooting the lights out, hitting five three-pointers, while Allman did double damage, attacking Clapham's interior defence, and also hitting two long-range bombs.

But with their two-point lead that left Clapham in a daze, Lakers couldn't shut the door.

Bad shots

Armstrong and Allman both took ill-advised shots off the backboard when their team had yet to set up their half-court game.

Clapham are much stronger in transition, and the unstoppable Gill took both rebounds coast-to-coast for the two three-point plays that proved to be the decider.

Earlier, it had been a game of big men, as Garry Miller and Andre St Pierre for the Bulls, and Sidney Rowe and Matthew Moore for the Lakers battled rough and tough inside.

At the end, Moore was left holding an ice-pack to his bloodied and swollen nose, Rowe had a scowl on his face, and Miller and St Pierre were all smiles after getting close-up dunks that kept Clapham in the game, just when it appeared Lakers would run away with the win.

Lakers were hampered with the injury of their best shooter Zahir Motara, who watched from the bench, while Clapham had to deal with a sub-par game from Ryan Leacock, but still this turned out to be the match of the tournament so far.

In the nightcap, defending champions Station Hill Cavaliers finally broke out of their slump, beating Playfair Warriors 96-89.

Warriors are the team that usually win ugly games, but it was Cavaliers who put their scrappy effort behind them long enough to come out with a victory.

Big men Andrew Alleyne and Kelvin Patterson-Browne battled all night inside for the Cavs, and it was their work that opened up the court for sharp-shooter Jason Smith, who swished three-pointers in the final two minutes to give the Cavs breathing room.

Summarised scores: Clapham Bulls 82 (40) (Jeremy Gill 24, Henry Richards 20) Lakers 78 (26) (Brian Armstrong 25, Adrian Allman 11, Andrea Boadu 10, Derek Browne 10) Cavaliers 96 (43) (Kelvin Patterson-Browne 39, Jason Smith 30) Warriors 89 (40) (David Smith 24, Oran Skeete 16, Corey McDonald 16, Kirk Shaw 14, Nicholas King 10)