Barking Abbey Academy Lions sealed runner-sup spot in the Elite Academy Southern Conference with a 60-57 home victory against City of London Academy, on Wednesday.
The young Lions will now host Derby College Trailblazers in the play-off quarter-finals next week.
In a tetchy game that saw several technical fouls down the stretch, Cem Uner led Abbey with 11 points, with brothers Paul and Stephen Asante adding ten apiece and E Kanwei nine in a balanced scoring effort.
Umer opened the scoring but the home side trailed for most of the first period and despite M Amako’s trey CoLA led 14-9 at the first break.
That lead grew to ten at the start of the second period as the visitors scored the first six points before Joe Buchanan ended the run with a triple, and Lions finished the half on an 8-2 run as Amako cut the deficit to 32-29 going into the locker room.
Abbey started the second half strongly as Buchanan’s trey capped a 7-0 run to put the hosts back in front, and Umer’s basket saw Lions lead 44-42 at the final break.
The fourth period was a war of attrition as the teams exchanged baskets, and despite a Serl triple, CoLA led 52-51 heading into the final four minutes.
The visitors were ahead by three going into the last minute before a pair of baskets from the Asante brothers put Lions back ahead, and despite three straight misses at the foul line from the hosts, Umer sealed the victory in the dying seconds.
There was also success for Lions’ girls as they qualified for the WEABL play-offs with a pair of wins this week.
A day after they had won a vital Division One game at Reading, Coppleston Six Form College were edged out 87-82 on Monday before Grace Strickland scored seven triples in a 28-point, six assist haul to leave Abbey to a 72-48 victory against American School in London
the following day.
After an even start against the Americans, Lions reeled off seven straight points before treys from Strickland and Tenu Fakunle helped them go into the first break 30-15 ahead.
A 6-0 run to start the second period saw Lions firmly in control and another Fakunle triple helped them go into the locker room with a 45-27 lead.
It was raining threes in the third period as Fatmata Janneh, Nicholle Lavinier and Strickland (2) all scored from the Land of Plenty as Abbey took a 61-39 lead into the final frame.
Back-to-back Strickland treys took the lead out to 69-41 with three minutes remaining before the 16-year-old wrapped up the win with her six trey of the game.
Janneh finished with 19 points while Fakunle added 11 for Lions.
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