Youthful basketball league outfit Dolphins at the weekend pulled off another giant-killing feat by walloping the experienced Spartans by a margin of 21 points during the National Championship semi-finals second series.
Dolphins showed more hunger and stamina, not for the first time shocking Spartans who are regarded as one of the titans of local basketball.
In this tournament teams play in a three series games with the winning team of the series qualifying for the finals.
During the first series Spartans showed more class, technique and quality as they outsmarted Dolphins 57-49. However in the second series Dolphins bounced back like a wounded lions. The youngsters whose age average is roughly 23 years showed more determination, hunger and stamina as they put up a brave fight against Spartans.
Agility, passion and stamina were at play when Dolphins choked Spartans 58-37. In an interview with The Telegraph Dolphins coach Trynos Moyo congratulated his youngsters. He said his players did well despite the fact that most of them are inexperienced when it comes to playing in the Championships.
“After losing our first game we decided to double our efforts in our second game. We showed more hunger and deserved to win,” he said.
Moyo also revealed that their tactic was to target Spartans key man Robert Bendo Mosalakatane. The Spartans number one is known to be a pivot of the Spartans team both in attack and defence. Moyo said he assigned the Zimbabwean point guard Nathan Warikandwa to contain Mosalakatane.
Moyo said he is ready for the last game but regrets that he will miss Thuto Shai who will be writing his exams.
However he said he team has depth and does not rely on certain players. “In our last series we promised our fans a good game and we do not take respect away from Spartans it is a good team. But anything can happen in the game of basketball,” said Moyo.
The games were supposed to start on Friday evening but the UB courts lights went off in the middle of the game. The lights operators had set the lights to go off automatically around 2100 hours. This interrupted the games and angry supports started clamouring for a refund.
The fixtures were also squeezed and teams had to play on rainy Saturday and a sunny Sunday without resting. This was also one of the excuses for Spartans heavy loss at the hands of Dolphins.
Spartans coach Bobotho Ratsoma said Dolphins had the youthful energy when compared to his aging squad. He said obviously on their second series fatigue had taken over hence the loss.
“Things were not in order on the second game. Almost all our players showed the signs of fatigue in the second game,” said Ratsoma.Ratsoma also reminded his opponents that there is no use in targeting Mosalakatane as “he was not involved in attack that much during his last game.”
He warned that targeting one player could cause a major disappointment for his opponents saying Spartans have many quality players who can do the job for them. He said he needs to rest his players for the final series.
Ratsoma also praised Dolphins saying they have improved a lot and are showing that they are no push overs.
In the other National Championship semi-final games, Troopers have dominated, winning all games and making sure to eliminate Flames from the tournament.
In series one Troopers beat Flames 61-42 and in series two Troopers beat Flames 56-48. Troopers have already qualified for the finals and are waiting for winner between Spartans and Dolphins and the finals will be played this weekend. Debswana and Posh Inc are joint sponsors of these games.