The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Rolantae Knowles not only helped Sunland Baptist Academy take the prestigious Hugh Campbell Basketball Classic senior boys’ title to Grand Bahama, but he ended up being one of 12 players selected to the All-Tournament team.

Knowles, one of the senior members of the team, ignited their offensive attack for 22 points to earn the most valuable player award after Sunland Baptist captured their first title ever with an 81-68 rout over CC Sweeting Cobras.

It was a bitter-sweet win for coach Jay Philippe, who played against his former team, whom he previously played for in the tournament.

On top of that, Philippe managed to avenge a loss to the Cobras, then coached by Mario Bowleg, who beat the Stingers in the final four years ago.

While it was a night of celebrations for Philippe and the Grand Bahamian community as Sunland Baptist hoisted the trophy for the first time, it was a difficult pill for coach Wayde Watson to swallow as his Cobras lost out in their bid for their fifth crown.

“Congratulations to the Sunland Stingers. They are the champions,” Watson said. “I always want to say hats off to my boys. They did extremely well. They played to get there.

“A lot of people talked about CC Sweeting wasn’t expected to get there, but those guys have equal talent. I don’t see anybody else who has surpassed the talent that we had this year.”

Watson, who took over Bowleg as the head coach of the Cobras last year, apologised to their CC Sweeting fans for not putting up a much better showing, but he credited Sunland for their efforts.

“We just have to go back to the drawing board and regroup,” he said. “The boys were really emotionally drained because they know that they could have played better.

“If the game was closer, we could have beaten Sunland, just as we beat Doris Johnson. So it is what it is. Hats off to Sunland. We just have to go back to the drawing board and see what we can do.”

The Cobras stunned the Doris Johnson Mystic Marlins in one-half of the semi-finals on Sunday night to dethrone the defending champions, while the Stingers advanced over the St George’s Jaguars.

Since the inception of the tournament in 1982, there have been 14 different schools to win the title, although the Tabernacle Baptist Falcons hold the record for capturing eight. Both the Catholic High Crusaders and the CI Gibson Rattlers earned five apiece.

This year, the Falcons and the Rattlers opted not to participate in this year’s tournament, which still turned out to be one of the most competitive with all games played at the AF Adderley Gymnasium.

Instead, they both decided to compete in the Dynasty Hoops Tipoff Classic (see story on page 3) that was held in Orland, Florida, over the weekend where the Falcons lost in the varsity boys’ gold championship game and the Rattlers captured the silver championship title.

While Knowles earned the MVP award, he was joined by team-mate Oswald Meadows for the most assists award.

The other divisional category winners were Theodore Hanna of Galilee Academy for the most blocks, Antanel Pierre of Mt Carmel for most rebounds and Dimargio Taylor of Government for the most points scored.

Knowles and Meadows were named to the All-Tournament team.

The others were Theodore Hanna (Galilee), Dimargio Taylor (Government High), Christian Manace (CC Sweetiing), Matthew Saunders (Doris Johnson), Kevin Thompson (Anatol Rodgers), Dre Hudson (Queen’s College), Adrian Pinder (St George’s), Yarek Russell (Sir Jack Hayward), Jordan Gibson (Akhepran International) and Monteze Rolle (CR Walker).