By Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

Denham Town Wizards, led by Anthony Farquharson's game-high 25 points and 14 rebounds, defeated Portmore Flames 72-71 in the KFC National Basketball League (NBL) at the National Stadium courts last night.

The first half was closely contested with the Wizards holding a 39-32 lead at half-time. Flames were equal to the task in the third quarter as they stepped up their defence and limited the deficit to three points (57-54) at the end of the period.

In an exciting and hotly contested fourth period, which saw a number of lead changes by both teams, the Flames' Adrian Coote hit a three-pointer with less than 50 seconds remaining to bring his team within a point of the leaders at 72-71. However, that would be the final basket by either team as Denham Town held on for the win.

Farquharson received good support from teammate Dwayne Harris who had 25 points and 14 rebounds. Kenado Smith, 25 points and six rebounds, and Coote with 15 points and seven rebounds were the leading scorers for the Flames.

Wayne Bartley, coach of the Wizards, said was dissatisfied with his team's performance.

"The game tonight was really a hard game," said Bartley. "However, one of the things that really made it hard was that we weren't playing defence. Our defence was just very slack today."

Bartley added: "We will be going back to the drawing board and we are going to work on our defence alone because in any game if you don't have defence then you won't have any offence."

Kevin Pinnock, coach of Portmore Flames, said: "I think that we stuck to our game plans tonight. However, we just made a few mistakes in the end and that was what cost us the game."

The league continues this evening with two matches. Defending champions St. George's Slayers tackle Pure Playaz 6:00 p.m. and Majesty Gardens battle Urban Knights at 7:45 p.m.