Tigers claw to a thrilling triumph

Tigers have held on against a fast-finishing Barking Owls to win by a point in dramatic fashion in round 3 of the Albany Basketball Association men’s A-grade competition on Tuesday night.

Tigers point-guard John Santia was penalised under the rarely used “closely guarded player” rule in the dying stages, however Owls could not capitalise as veteran Justin Benson missed one of two free throws after being fouled on the final play, giving the Tigers their third straight win to start the season.

An early 6-0 run by Tigers was slowly reeled in by Owls, who went into the half-time break ahead 15-14.

Benson scored the first basket of the second half before the Tigers made their move to go on a 10-3 spree to lead by four points with 15 minutes left.

Another burst from Tigers had them ahead 31-24 with eight minutes remaining but back-to-back baskets to Owls cut the margin to three points before Tigers big man Corey Hill went to the free-throw line.

Hill hit one of two free throws to make it a two-possession game with less than two minutes remaining.

Benson then scored on a driving lay-up to cut the margin to two points inside the final minute.

Tigers attempted to hold possession to close out the game before Santia was penalised for holding the ball for more than five seconds while being guarded closely.

This gave Owls the final possession of the match and Benson was sent to the free-throw line after being fouled driving to the basket.

Benson needed to nail both free throws to snatch a draw but could only manage one, ensuring Tigers kept their perfect record intact.

Santia finished with 12 points, which included two threes.

Benson came up with a number of tough shots down the stretch to finish with 17 points for Owls, who lacked the same offensive flow of their opening two matches.

In other fixtures, the Raiders under-18 development squad defeated Wolves by 14 points as Matt Leary finished with 19 points, while Ambassadors downed Dugites 33-28.