#BNL2015 Game Update: Finals Game Day 3
Sunday the 6th of September might be remembered as South African Basketball’s judgement day. A day drawn to us by fate as the Egoli Magic and Duzi Royals met up for game 3 of the Basketball National League finals. With the teams splitting the 1st two games, we were in for a grand finale as this was the season decider.
Egoli Magic started the game with Nkosinathi Festile running the point guard position as Jose Salvador was still stretching out his calf muscle which he suffered cramps on towards the end of game 2. Festile helped to set the tone early for Egoli as he and Captain Lesego Molebatsi gave the Magic an early lead of 17-7 after the 1st quarter. It almost looked like we were about to have the same storyline as game 2 with the Royals failing to score, but they steadily picked up the fight in the 2nd quarter behind some inspired play by their bench players. The score was 33-25 to Egoli at halftime, but the Royals held good momentum going into the half.
The Royals indeed came out fighting in the 2nd half with the Sithole brothers, Thabo and Sakhile, stepping it up and leading the fight. The game was eventually tied at 46-apiece at the beginning of the 4th quarter which meant that it was all to play for in the last quarter. Fumani Marhanele made two big 3-pointers as the teams exchanged baskets throughout. Wembley arena was in raptures as the two teams were fighting to the death. The game was tied at 59-apiece with 24 seconds to go and Coach Flosh Ngwenya drew up one more play. The ball was inbounded to Jose Salvador who ran down the clock against Cyril Shabalala, he drove into the key and passed it to Lesego who shot and made the biggest 3-pointer of the season with less than one second to go. With the fans stunned, the clock ran out and the game ended 62-59. This means that Egoli Magic was officially crowned the champions of the 3rd season of the BNL. Lesego’s double-double of 19 points and 14 rebounds was a game high on both; Joseph Mazibuko and Salvador added 12 and 10 points respectively. Marhanele finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds for the Royals, Thabo and Sakhile had 10 points each. With his great play, Jose Salvador was named the MVP for the 2015 season.
A big congratulations goes out to the Egoli Magic organisation on a great season of Basketball.
The BNL would also like to take this opportunity to thank the fans for their selfless contributions to the steady growth of the league. We are looking forward to a bigger and better 2016.
Issued on behalf of the BNL by: PR & Media Manager
Alvina Naicker
