Panthers Heat Up Tropics in Semis
In the semifinal game of the Rumble in the Bronx on Sunday, the NY Panthers faced tough Miami Tropics team but in the end survived multiple attempts by the Florida team to overtake them and ultimately winning by five.
The Tropics took an early lead but Kevin Parrom would give the Panthers their first lead off a floater in the paint followed by a jumper.
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Bigs Paul Bilbo and Brian Wilson did work grabbing boards for the Bronx team.
Omari Lawrence was relentless on offense and displayed his passing ability on a no look to Parrom to give the Panthers a five point lead with 6 minutes left in the half.
Anton Fortunato provided an offensive spark for Miami as did Richie Edwards and Ed Stinson and at the 4 minute mark the score was knotted at 31 points.
Late in the first half, freshman guard Sterling Gibbs a fast break lay-up followed by two more from the charity stripe to give the Panthers an 11 point cushion at the half.
Big man Torelyn Fitzpatrick would pull the Miami Tropics to within one down low and Fortunato would score a dunk on the following play to give the Tropics their first lead with 13:58 left in regulation but Parrom and Lawrence kept their lead brief.
With 8:34 left the Panthers lead grew to 13 points as the Miami Tropics began to fade under the relentless Panthers pace.
Emari Bailey would score a key bucket with 4:05 left followed by a jumper to bring the Tropics to within 1 point.
With 1:27 left Wilson would get fouled, score both free throws and Winston Graham would get a quick steal and a put back and with 53 seconds, Miami was down 5 points.
Lawrence would get fouled on the next play and would increase the Panthers lead to 7 points.
The Tropics would get to within 3 as Fitzpatrick would nail a clutch three pointer but with 2 seconds the panthers would go on to win 87-82.
Kevin Parrom was the high scorer for the NY Panthers with 26 points followed by teammate Omari Lawrence with 24 points.
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