By CARLOS ARUAFU

Travel Blazers is the new champion of the Honiara basketball league after defeating defending champions QQQ Marist 50-32 in the 2013 HBL senior men’s category grand final at the Multipurpose Hall last weekend.

As expected it was a tough contested match as both sides were more determined to come out victorious.

But Blazers knew very well that to start off positive by maintaining the lead from the first quarter of the game and shutting off their threat is important.

Marist’s three pointer Wage Turueke was a marked man during the final showdown and obviously did not pick up in his three point shooting.

Blazers continued its dominance in all quarters with only the closest score margin, a five point difference of 22-17 at the end of the second quarter.

Marist did play well with consistency in all quarters but could not match the pace Blazers was running.

Blazer’s coach Fa’amoana Topue said they deserved the win as they fought really hard for it.

“We deserve the win; the players gave everything into today’s (yesterday) finals.

“I think the combination of our defense and speed was what made the difference in today’s match.

“Marist played good but I think we were better off by the end of the final quarter.

“We have been preparing for this match for months now and all our efforts have finally paid off.

“This is a huge achievement and I would like to thank the boys for all their efforts,” Topue said.

He extended the acknowledgement to Michael Chan for the use of the CYO court for trainings and all the supporters and families who came out to support the team.

But he stressed that becoming champions means the team now has a huge responsibility to defend the title.

Meanwhile in other grand finals, El-Divas was crowned the new champions for the women’s category after defeating SOSA 40-22 and Capital Giants edged Blazers B team 59-58.

For the high school finals, Betikama girls defeated Tenaru 34-31 and KG VI defended their status as the champions for the boy’s category.