The Tribune

The Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools crowned the new senior girls basketball champions, St John’s College Giants, at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium on Monday night.

The Giants’ senior girls stunned St Augustine’s College Big Red Machine 42-33 for the title.

Giants 42, Big Red Machine 33

Coach Oswaldo Taylor had his senior girls from St John’s firing on all cylinders as they took a slim 19-17 lead into the half. They managed to hold off every charge SAC came up with in the second half to preserve the win.

Down the stretch, Michelle Butler came up with a couple of big blow shots and critical rebounds that enabled the Giants and their fans to start their celebrations.

And after Calvinique Spence converted their final three baskets to seal the deal, St John’s rushed onto the court to enjoy their big moment.

Spence finished with 12 points to lead their attack. Sidney Hillaire followed with 11, Christina Richardson chipped in with nine and both Michelle Butler and Logan Sands had five.

“This is awesome. I haven’t had this feeling since I was with the T-Bird Flyers (in the New Providence Basketball Association),” Taylor said. “This is a great team. I thank God for them. They all did a wonderful job today. We had a wonderful practice on Sunday and now we have a wonderful victory because of that,” she added.

St John’s was slow in getting into their rhythm as they trailed SAC 11-4 at the end of the first quarter. But they went up for the first time (19-17) just before the half-time buzzer on Spence’s lay-up.

The Big Red Machine would roll ahead 27-26 at the end of the third, but it was all Giants as they stood tall in the fourth quarter on a six-point spurt to eventually close out the game.