Caguas to play Manatí in BSN finals after ousting Ponce

The Caguas Criollos’ Onzie Branch gestures during a National Superior Basketball semifinal game in Caguas on Sunday night. Caguas beat Ponce to advance to the finals.

By The Star Staff

The Caguas Criollos will face the Manatí Bears in the National Superior Basketball (BSN by its initials in Spanish) finals after defeating the Ponce Lions 75-70 on Sunday to win their semifinal series in six games.

The BSN finals begin Saturday at 8 p.m. in Manatí.

Ponce took an early lead in the first 10 minutes of the game, but the host Criollos turned the tables, dominating the last three periods. Even though Ponce was more efficient on offense, Caguas outscored the Lions by 12 points from beyond the arc while the Criollos finished with a 24-11 advantage in free throws.

During the third period there was a clash between the Lions’ Jordan Bell and Louis King of the Criollos that ended in a fight. After the review both players were expelled from the game, and three more Ponce players -- Bryon Allen, Luis Rolón and Wil Martínez -- had to join Bell in the locker room for entering the court from the bench at the time of the altercation. The referees’ decision after reviewing the video was four free throws for Caguas and the ball, due to two technical fouls.

As a consequence, the Lions lost four players. With the departure of Bell, Jordan Murphy, Carlos “Yao” López and Aleem Ford had to take the role of big man against the Criollos’ Akil Mitchell, Onzie Branch and Devon Collier.

Travis Trice finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and three assists for Caguas. Collier finished with 13 points and seven rebounds, and Branch added 11 points and six boards.

For the Lions, only Jared Ruiz and Jezreel de Jesús scored in double figures. Ruiz finished with 25 points and eight rebounds, while de Jesús had 19 points, five rebounds and three assists.