Caledonia captured the lucrative third prize of $250,000 in the Hoop of Life Community Basketball League when it defeated La Romaine 73-60 in the decisive game-two of the Big-Four third place play-off at Paradise Heights Basketball Court in Morvant.

La Romaine needed to win game-two of the series by 13 points after losing the first match to Caledonia on Wednesday in La Romaine 89-77.

Playing in front of their home fans, Caledonia coached by Ruthven Glean, the hosts got the perfect spark, with six points from its captain Wilt Vincent and seven from Kyeon Joseph as they jumped out to a 21-12 first quarter lead. In fact, Caledonia was so dominant that it took La Romaine four and a half minutes to score their first basket.

As the first half unfolded, La Romaine never looked ready for the challenge as they turned the ball over and missed easy lay-ups consistently in a low-scoring quarter, where they were again out-pointed 9-13 and fell 34-21 behind at half-time.

In the third session, La Romaine led by Adrian Joseph, a former NCAA Division I player in the US, and national point guard Derrick Boxill, finally showed some quality despite being outscored 20-16, but their deficit was 17 points (54-37) with one quarter left.

La Romaine did not have the crowd support they thrived on in the previous 12 matches but with pride and the biggest pay day for a third place in the history of the sport locally at stake, the team out-scored the host 23-19 but it was still not enough when the final second ticked away only to lose by 13 points, at which point Caledonia erupted into celebration.

Forward Joseph led all scorers with 18 points, Wesley Vincent supported with 16 and Wesley's brother and team captain Wilt finished with 14.

For La Romaine, Joseph fought hard for 14 points, Delroy Agard, who struggled during the three previous games added 12, Boxill struggled to score ten points and Kevin Sargent added ten.

Last night Laventille and Marabella were scheduled to face off in the first of a three-match series for the grand winners' prize of one million dollars at St Barb's Basketball Court, Laventille.