Members of the Urban Knights team celebrate with the Flow national title. - Winston Sill

Coach of Urban Knights, Oneil Brown, believes that his team's refusal gave them the title of top Jamaican basketball clubs.

Urban Knights overcame a nine-point deficit, with seven minutes left in the final quarter, to defeat two-time defending champions Tivoli Wizards 71-69 in game three of the best-of-three Flow National Basketball League (NBL) at the National Arena on Tuesday night.

The title was Urban Knights' fourth national title, and the first under new coach Oneil Brown.

"We came here with a defensive strategy, the same one Tivoli used against us, when they took game two on Sunday. At one point, we didn't have any answer for Tivoli's key man (Omar) Barnes, but I told the players to keep fighting and we managed to force a few turnovers, which turned into points, and that was the difference," he said.

Tivoli were comfortable in the fourth quarter, at 64-55, as Omar Barnes and Andy Smith powered the offence early on. However, a number of sloppy offensive plays by the defending champs, and a stubborn defence by the Knights saw the lead dwindle. The Knights capitalised on Tivoli's woes, and went on a decisive 10-0 run. Urban Knight's captain Fernando Young, who had a team high 18 points, shot a three-pointer and gave his team a one-point advantage, 65-64, and they never looked back.

Ted Marshall, Tivoli's coach was a disappointed man.

"We made some critical turnovers in the fourth quarter, and they capitalised on our mistakes and scored. We only scored 12 points in the fourth quarter and we lost, that's the way basketball goes," Young, the Knights captain, also hailed the efforts of the team.

"I have to hand it to my teammates as they really stepped up the defence in the fourth quarter. We switched from a 1-3-1 defence to a 2-3 defence and that forced them (Tivoli) to take outside shots and we knew they couldn't made those shots consistently. We forced a few turnovers, which gave us a couple of fast break points and the rest is history. Tivoli won back-to-back titles, Urban Knights were due one."