The Springfield rivals will meet Thursday night at 6:15 at Sci-Tech.
Keith Casion will lead Sci-Tech against Putnam in Thursday night's Jack Troy Basketball League final in Springfield.By JON SANTER
SPRINGFIELD – Thursday night’s Jack Troy Summer League Championship will feature the two favorites at the end of the boys basketball regular season.
The top-seeded Putnam Beavers will square off against the second place Cybercats of Sci-Tech at 6:15 p.m. to determine the best team of the summer. The championship game will be held at Sci-Tech.
Last summer for Putnam was bitter.
The Beavers went undefeated throughout summer league play, only to be upset by the Commerce Red Raiders in the championship game.
Like last year, Putnam is undefeated and headed into the championship as the favorites. It will face an athletic Sci-Tech team that is ready for the challenge.
“When we go down we need to keep our heads up, we can play with anybody, we can beat them,” said Sci-Tech center Keith Casion.
As for Putnam, they will be coming into Thursday night’s championship game confident but knows that the Cybercats are no easy task to beat.
“It’s definitely going to be a good game,” said Putnam forward Kayjuan Bynum. “We play all these kids in the streets, it will be very competitive because we all grew up with each other.”
In Wednesday night’s first semifinal matchup at Sci-Tech, the Beavers beat Amherst by a score of 64-37.
Putnam was led by Bynum with 15 points, followed by Dizel Wright with 14 and David Murrell with 12.
The Beavers were no match for the Amherst team, taking a demanding lead early on and carrying a 41-16 lead into halftime. Once the second half got underway, Bynum scored two quick baskets and had a ground shattering block that helped Putnam pick up right where they left off.
With 7:34 left in the second half, just as Amherst started to gain a little momentum, Wright snuck in a nifty basket. On the ensuing in-bound pass, John Garcia stole the ball and hit an open 3-pointer to put the finishing touches on Wednesday night’s game.
“We picked up the defense tonight, we’ve been slacking lately but we stepped it up tonight,” said Putnam coach Wayne Moore.
The second game of the doubleheader was a much more closer game between the Commerce Red Raiders and Sci-Tech. Commerce led 37-32 at halftime only to see the Cybercats battle back and take the game 67-63.
“We came out kind of slow but they picked things up towards the end,” said Sci-Tech coach Brian Greene.
Sci-Tech was led by Casion who netted 17 points and Angel Muntez with 16.
With 5:04 left in the game, Najee Numalley of Sci-Tech forced a turnover and head manned the ball to Muntez. Numalley then hustled down the court to receive a fancy behind the back pass from Muntez and finished the lay in to put the Cybercats up 60-50.
From here on out Sci-Tech took control until the final buzzer sounded and punched their ticket into Thursday nights matchup.
Earlier in the season, Putnam and Sci-Tech battled in a close game until the second half when Putnam broke it open. The Beavers won the game 75-57.