The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

It was a clean sweep of all four divisional titles in the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools 2023 best-of-three basketball championships that ended last night at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

But none was more sweeter than the senior boys’ division where the Charles W Saunders prevailed over their fellow Baptist school, Jordan Prince Williams Falcons, 54-50, to win their school’s first ever basketball title.

No one was more elated about the victory than head coach Dario Burrows, who had to catch his breath after the exhausting finish.

“This is the first one. It feels awesome. I’m just thankful to God that my players made me proud,” he said.

“We’re going to celebrate this. All of the alumnus are out tonight, so we are going to enjoy this.”

The Cougars sealed the deal with a big offensive rebound and a reverse put back from their big centre Nakero Brown-Cox to push the lead to the final margin after it was tied twice in the fourth quarter at 44-44 and 50-50.

“We knew that Jordan Prince Will and coach (Ernest) Saunders were going to make the adjustments after game one,” Burrows said. “We knew it was going to be a fight, but our boys came prepared to put up a fight. We were prepared. We won.”

Brown-Cox finished with 10 points and a couple of blocked shots to go along with some clutch rebounds. Raymone Woods, however, led the Cougars attack with a game high 22 points. Marcian Pickstock had nine, Treymon Wright seven and both Tenaj Strachan and Romial Strachan helped out with three.

For the Falcons, Kamari Minnis had 19, E Lockhart had 12, J Kemp nine and both Bradley Cadet and Tray Clarke had four apiece.

Both teams played to an 11-11 tie at the end of the first quarter, but Charles W Saunders pulled away from a slim 17-16 to go up 27-21 at the half.

The Falcons made a run coming within one, 37-36, but the Cougars pulled away from a 41-38 at the end of the third.

Senior girls

Big Red Machine 53, Giants 21: St Augustine’s College was a little too much for St John’s to handle as they got a balanced scoring rampage for their senior girls’ sweep.

“My team performed well. I knew we were going to win the game. It’s not just being cocky. We just did what we had to do and after our junior girls and our junior boys lost, we knew we had to bring at least one home,” said SAC head coach Anastacia Sands-Moultrie.

Her daughter, Antonicia Moultrie, had a game high 19, Dior-Rae Scott finished with 16, Teanna Gibson had eight and Arianna Gomez added six for the Big Red Machine.

“We have three seniors graduating and they wanted to go out with a bang today.

“So we are going to celebrate our seniors, who were with us from grade seven,” explained Sands- Moultrie of Moultrie, Terelle Dawkins and Christian Smith.

On a personal note, Sands- Moultrie said she was pleased with the way Moultrie stepped up and became the leader of the team. She noted that basketball is her passion and she played to the best of her ability.

Reyanah Green did all she could, leading the Giants with 15. Keira Poitier had three and both Lebronique Demeritte and Camille Stevenz had two each, but obviously it wasn’t enough.

After being held scoreless, Green got a rebound and drove the length of the court to complete a three-point play with 44 seconds for an 8-3 deficit. Demeritte canned a jumper just before Green came back and hit a free throw to trim it to 8-6 to end the first quarter.

St John’s opened the second on the first basket to tie at 8-8. But it was all SAC the rest of the period as they surged ahead 22-14 with Scott leading the attack as Moultrie picked up two quick fouls.

After a short break, Moultrie regained her composure as she settled down and controlled their potent offensive attack in the third as they raced out to a 41-19 tear.

Junior Boys

Falcons 44, Big Red Machine 41: Jordan Prince Williams made this one look so easy from the start but had to hold on for their lives to complete their junior boys’ sweep.

They opened a 14-0 lead before SAC got on the scoreboard and eventually trailed 17-4 at the initial break. As the Big Red Machine picked up their intensity, the Falcons stayed ahead by 12, 24-12 at the half.

SAC kept their momentum up, using a zone defence to cut the deficit to 33-27 at the end of the third after forcing the Falcons to make some critical turnovers.

Mid-way in the fourth, SAC came within one, 33-32, much to the delight of their fans. But the Falcons quickly silenced the noise and went on a 7-2 spurt to extend their lead to 41-34. SAC made one last gallant effort in the last minute and-a-half, but the Falcons pulled away with it in the winding seconds.

Michael Munnings exploded for a game high 24 points, including nine when it counted the most in the fourth to pace the Falcons. Broc Glinton had 12 and Condie Smith had 10 points.

“The team played good. We executed our game plan,” Maycock said. “It was a good game. We played a little sluggish in the second half and they were able to cut down the lead, but we were able to execute our game plan. We were very confident that we would win it tonight.”

For the Big Red Machine, Nathan Rolle had 21 points. Micah Moxey and Justiz Butler both contributed six and Quincy Rolle added four.

Junior Girls

Saints 25, Big Red Machine 12: It was a repeat performance for Kingsway Academy, who behind the rhythmic sound of the junkanoo music, swept aside SAC in grand style.

While Andica Curtis got away from the double team to score seven points, Dashante Sears got loose for eight to lead the charge, all coming in the second half as Kingsway Academy pulled away from a 6-6 tie at mid-point. Michayla Joseph also contributed eight.

Saints’ head coach Tamaro Butler said it was exactly what they anticipated, even though they were held to just a field goal from Joseph in the first quarter.

“It feels good. This is what we set out to do at the beginning of the year. We accomplished our goal,” he said. “Yet again, I know I’ve been saying this a lot, but we started off slow. We picked up our game and we came out with the victory.”

Kingsway Academy forced SAC to commit too many turnovers and when they needed it, they took advantage on the boards, both offensively and defensively.

The Big Red Machine, outscored 9-2 in the third and 10-4 in the fourth, got six points from Zion Carey, four from Azarria Marshall and another two from Alexis Roberts.