( L - R ) Urban Knights' Omar Barnes, Calvin Martin, coach of Urban Knights.

Defending champions Urban Knights face a do-or-die clash to defend their title against Javon Bailey and the Spanish Town Spartans in a game-three decider in the Flow/ National Basketball League (FNBL) best-of-three finals, at the National Arenal, tonight, starting at 7 p.m.

Today's decider is expected to be another closely contested encounter between the teams, who have thrilled fans in their previous two meetings.

Following a 77-75 triple-overtime game-one defeat, the Spartans came storming back in game two, clamping down defensively, crashing the boards and forcing turnovers from the Knights, whom they defeated 51-46 to level the series.

The Spartans, who are the reining Southern and Midseason champions, will be looking for a similar defensive effort in this crucial game three. The Knights, on the other hand, must find ways to free scorer Omar Barnes.

Barnes, who netted 14 points in Tuesday's defeat, is expected to receive valuable support from Oneil Mundle and Kwame Lawrence, who netted 12 and eight points, respectively on Tuesday.

Knights' coach Oneil Brown, while confident, believes that his team has to be careful.

"We have to convert from the free-throw line and stop the Spartans' penetration in the lane. I think that once we do that we should be good in game three," he said. "We know that game three is going to be close, but I think that we have depth and the experience to pull it off."

Reflecting on his team's performance on Tuesday, Brown said: "We didn't execute tonight (Tuesday) because there was a lot of individual effort from our players instead of a team one.

"Spanish Town are not going to go away ... they are going to fight to the end, but we had a chance to close out the series and threw it away.

Brown's opposite number Calvin Martin, said his team will be going all out for victory.

"We have to attack them some more. I still think we were shooting too much from outside," said Martin.

"I just want my team to be composed and to execute. We may have to take game three down to a walk and see what we can do against this Urban Knights team," he said.

Bailey scored eight points and dished out seven assists in game one and is expected to receive support from Christopher Jennings, who added 13 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.

Javon Bailey