The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

COACH Chris DeMarco likes the “resilience” that he’s seen so far from the Bahamas men’s national basketball team in the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament 2023 in La Banda, Argentina.

On Wednesday night, Team Bahamas rallied from as much as 19 points, while holding the same digit in their lead for a 101-89 win over the world’s fourth ranked Argentina in front of their large and loud spirited home crowd.

With that win and an impressive 109-68 victory on opening day on Monday against Cuba, the Bahamas clinched the top spot coming out of Group A as they head into the semifinals on Saturday.

“I was really proud of our performances and the resilience shown so far,” said DeMarco, the Golden State Warriors’ assistant coach, who heads the Bahamian coaching staff that includes Moses Johnson and Mikhail McLean in Argentina.

“During the game, we both held 19 point leads, but we were able to pull together and managed to get the job done. It was tough because we played them in a very hostile environment with all of their fans cheering. It was a big win for us.”

The Bahamas’ big trio of National Basketball Association players, Eric Gordon, in his first tournament for the country he’s a descendant from, provided the spark with 24 points, three assists and a pair of steals.

Buddy Hield of the Indiana Pacers had another solid performance with 23 points, six rebounds and three assists, while DeAndre Ayton, who will be teaming up with Gordon for the first time this year with the Phoenix Suns, contributed 22 points with 15 rebounds, three block shots and two steals.

Travis Munnings, who is playing overseas in Europe, also had a big game with 20 points, four rebounds and a pair of assists and steals while Kentwan Smith had five points and five rebounds. Lourawls Nairn had four points and seven assists and Franco Miller Jr chipped in with three points.

DeMarco said the team is starting to click on all cylinders, despite the fact that he only had less than two weeks with everybody to run their plays for the tournament. “I still think there’s a ton of work to be done,” he said. “One of the goals is to build our chemistry and that is not just on the court but off the court. We’re working on our strengths and weaknesses and so we’re building on it every day and every game we play.”

Having now advanced to the semifinals on Saturday, DeMarco said they are waiting to see the outcome of the games played last night to determine who their opponent will be coming out of Group B that includes Chile, Uruguay, Colombia and the Virgin Islands.

“Without knowing who it is, we can’t properly prepare for them until we know who they are,” DeMarco said. “But we are working every day to make sure that whoever it is we face, we will be ready.

“This game against Argentina, who is ranked number four in the world, has really pushed us to get where we want to go. We just hope that we can continue to build on that going into the semifinals. Once we find out, we hope that we can carry this momentum over from this win against Argentina.”

DeMarco said it’s going to be important with the makeup of the team, assembled by the BBF and through the coaching staff along with general manager LJ Rose, their big men can play off the pick-and-roll and their guards can take care of the ball. “We had two vital moments in the game against Argentina that could have gone either way with the outcome of the game,” DeMarco said. “But we were able to get the job done by beating a really good team.”

DeMarco said they have to continue to work on “everything” in order to accomplish their goal. If they win their semifinal game, they will advance to Sunday’s championship game.

The winner of the championship will go on to participate in the Olympic Qualifying Tournament next year with the chance to advance to the Olympic Games in Paris, France.

With what could be considered the best team assembled so far in international play for the Bahamas, DeMarco said the players are all committed to booking their ticket to Paris next year. They just have to take care of business in Argentina this weekend.