The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas men's national basketball team, playing without starters Rony Cadeau and Keno Burrows because of slight injuries, suffered their second consecutive loss at the CentroBasket Championships.

Now the team, coached by Larry Brown, Mario Bowleg and Wayde Watson, is hoping that today's rest in San Juan, Puerto Rico, will help them before they rebound for their final game against Nicaragua Friday in their bid to get into the playoffs on Saturday.

Following on the heels of their 88-71 loss to Puerto Rico on Tuesday night, the Bahamas dropped a 78-70 decision to Panama. The team is now 1-2, having won their opener, 81-68, against Cuba on Monday.

"We have gotten into a little slump and it's only a matter of us getting out of it right now," Bowleg said following yesterday's loss. "We have to win on Friday and hope Cuba can beat Panama by more than five points for us to get into the playoffs.

"We feel we will be okay. We were the much better team against Panama, but we didn't play the way we are capable of playing. Our senior players are not playing up to par and our college players have been carrying us for the last two games. If they can get out of that slump, we will be okay."

Bowleg was referring to the fact that despite Cadeau and Burrows not playing because of their injuries, Kentwan Smith stepped into the starting line-up and he exploded for a side high 18 points with three rebounds.

The 20-year-old small forward played 13 minutes and 27 seconds as he shot 7-of-12 from the field for a 58.3 percentage and was 3-of-6 from the free throw line.

Mitch Johnson had 11 points with six assists, Leon Cooper had 10 points with four rebounds, Marvin Gray had eight points, five rebounds and four assists, Eugene Bain had eight points and eight rebounds and Jamal Douglas chipped in with seven points and four rebounds.

However, Bennet Davis (six rebounds) and Taran Cox were scoreless. Davis played 22 minutes and Cox played 13. Gamaliel Rose finished with four points in just eight minutes of action.

Panama, with four players in double figures, only trailed the Bahamas 5-3 in the opening minutes of the first quarter before they went on to open up a 23-14 lead at the break.

The Bahamas outscored Panama 17-16 in the second to trim the deficit to 39-31 at the half.

In the third quarter, the Bahamas fell behind by 10 for most of the way until they came within four, 55-51, with about 1:17 left in the period. Panama, however, stayed ahead 57-51 at the final break.

Again in the fourth, the Bahamas drew within four, 59-55, in the first minute. But that was short-lived as Panama remained in control of the game and slowly built on their lead to secure the win.

"We were clearly the better team, but unlike in the game against Puerto Rico, we just didn't play like we wanted to win," Bowleg said. "We just have to find a way to turn things around on Friday."

Hopefully the team will have Burrows and Cadeau back in the line-up when the team comes back after a day's rest to complete the round robin play against Nicaragua.

"While we hope to win that game, we are also relying on Cuba to beat Panama so that we can get into the playoffs," Bowleg said. "We feel confident that we will get there."

The top two teams in their pool will advance to the playoffs, which will determine the two teams that will eventually qualify for the Tournament of Americas.