Terminator 42, Uptempo 44

Uptempo held on for dear life on Wednesday night, barely surviving a late run from Terminator before locking up a 44-42 nail biter of a semifinal victory. Uptempo, who secured their third straight NRF Finals appearance, had their tickets to Madison Square all but booked with less than two minutes to go before Terminator turned the game’s end from surefire conclusion into breathtaking finish.

After a basket from Scott Williams increased Uptempo’s lead to six with two minutes left, a bad turnover from Williams thirty seconds later ended up in a quick basket for Terminator center Al Reyes. With back-to-back misses on the front ends of Uptempo one-and-one’s, Jamaal Lesane inched Terminator closer by cutting the deficit to two. A good inbounds play drawn up for Uptempo forward Terrence Chin resulted in a trip to the line, where he made one-of-two and increased his team’s lead to 44-42 with 11.1 seconds to go. Just as Aron Phillips predicted in his game preview, this one would come down to the final shot. On a somewhat frantic inbounds sequence after crossing half-court, Reyes dished the ball to Lesane, who launched an off-balance three-pointer that backrimmed and ended Terminator’s furious comeback attempt.

It took Williams a little while to find himself a good look near the perimeter, but once he did, he took over the first half of the game. Williams finished with 11 points in the first frame, including three silky three-pointers that touched nothing but net. Terminator managed to control the first-half damage, however, with six points from Reyes and two three’s from Omar Grant to keep the halftime deficit at a mere four points.

An eight-minute scoring drought in the second half put a serious dent in Terminator’s hopes of winning the game. Uptempo built a nine-point lead as Terminator struggled to shoot the ball from the field, finally ending the scoreless stretch on two Reyes free throws with less than five minutes left. The combination of Reyes and Grant helped lead Terminator back from the deficit, while eight more points from Williams in the second half proved to be a crucial contribution by the game’s final whistle.

Uptempo was led by Williams (19 points), while Terminator was paced by 13 points apiece from Grant and Reyes.

	1	2		T
Terminator	21	21	-	42
Uptempo	25	19	-	44

Box Scores

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