The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Providence Basketball Club’s annual Holiday Classic tournament for senior boys basketball teams is growing by leaps and bounds as more Family Islanders are coming to town to stay active over the Christmas break.

After three long and drained out days of intense competition, the tournament will come to a close tonight at the CI Gibson Gymnasium. The 24 teams were divided into four pools of six with the top two teams advancing to the playoff day today.

Tournament director Kevin ‘KJ’ Johnson said he has been quite impressed with the level of competition this year.

“A lot of the teams here are getting better and that’s what the tournament is all about,” said Johnson, who is also coach of his host CI Gibson Rattlers.

At the end of their play in pool A, the Rattlers remained undefeated with a 5-0 win-loss record. They are expected to face the Westminster Diplomats, who ended up right behind at 4-1. The Diplomats’ only loss came from the Rattlers.

In pool B, the Doris Johnson Mystic Marlins and the surprising Abaco Central High were 4-1, but they had to wait for the outcome of a couple late games by St George’s Jaquars from Grand Bahama and the CR Walker Knights to determine who will advance to the playoffs. The same was the case in pool C with Teleos Christian Academy and the CV Bethel Stingrays tied at 3-1 with one game that had to be played late last night. However, Zion Baptist and the Anatol Rodgers Timberwolves were still lingering behind at 2-2.

And in pool D, the defending champions CC Sweeting Cobras were perfect at 4-0 with their final game late last night. They will be matched against the Queen’s College Comets, who finished at 4-1 after losing their only game to the Cobras.

Here’s a summary of the matches played on Sunday before the final session:

Rattlers 66, Falcons 11

This one was over before it got started as Jordan Prince Williams was no match for CI Gibson, who smothered their offence from the first quarter. Shamir Rolle led a balanced scoring attack with nine points and both Devon Rolle and Wilton Johnson had six apiece in the win. Stephen Sears scored four in the loss.

“We played exceptionally well tonight. We came out on the defensive end and played very well,” coach Johnson said. “We stll need to rebound the ball better and take care of the ball and if we can make our free throws, we will give ourselves a chance to win.”

Queen’s College 66,

North Andros 54

After playing a close encounter for most of the game, the Comets broke away from a 41-41 tie with a minute left in the third quarter and they never looked back as Ellison Greenslade and Lerecus Armbrister both had 14 and D’Mitry Charlton 13. Ira Farrington had 11 in the loss.

“We are playing pretty good right now. We just came from Atlanta last week where we played in a tournament, winning the junior boys title,” said Comets’ coach Dwayne Smith. “We want to perform well here.”

Doris Johnson 65,

Abaco 39

The Mystic Marlins bounced back to keep their hopes alive for a shot in the final as Shanton Rolle and Lennix Moss produced a 1-2 punch with 12 points each in the win. Kyle Smith had a game high 21 in a losing effort for Abaco, who suffered their only loss, but also stayed in contention for the playoffs.

CR Walker 71,

South Andros 27

Although the Knights were only at 2-2 after the win, they put some pressure on the other teams in their pool as DeVontee Gibson scored a game high 16 and Gromyko Symonette had 12. Quinton Pennerman had 11 and Brandon Rolle eight for hapless South Andros.

CC Sweeting 46,

Agape Christian 41

Adrian Thompson had 20 points and Braymond Jones added seven for the Cobras, who remained undefeated with one game left. Godfrey Rolle Jr had a game high 26 for the losers.

North Andros 48,

Central Eleuthera 45

In a battle of the Family Islands, the Seminoles got 15 points from Ira Farrington and Prince Lewis had 11. Softball standout Micah Bethel had a game high 22 and Shayne Thompson had nine in the loss.

Abaco Central 48, CR Walker 43

With all of the hopes of the Family Islands resting on their shoulders in the playoffs, Abaco pulled off an upset behind the game high 28 points from Donte Henchell, 12 from Peron Bethel and nine from Kyle DDmith. Mark Emmanuel Jr had 20 and Shaquille Outten eight in the loss.

Westminster 47, Jordan Prince Williams 20

Jermaine Bethel scored 11 points and both Justin Ferguson and Andrew Butler had eight in the win for the Diplomats, who are into the final eight. Anthony Pinder scored eight in the loss.

Zion Academy 43, Anatol Rodgers 41

Asher Darville and Kennedy Moncur scored 17 and 12 points respectively in their upset win. Brandon Williams had a game high 13 in a losing effort for the Timberwolves.

Queen’s College 52, Kingsway Academy 40

Lerecus Armbrister netted a game high 22 points and both Kevin Miller and Cory Deveaux had six in the win for the playoff bound Comets. Kevin Cooper had eight and both Charlberto Darling and Ujammaa Johnson added six apiece in the loss.

San Salvador 64, Zion Academy 60

Although they are out of contention for the playoffs, the Caciques got a win as Birthel Lightfoot had a game high 23 points and Korcey Storr added 20. Evante McPhee had 11 and Kriss Barr 10. For the losers, Asher Scavalla had 22 and Benjamin Smith 12.

West Minister 55, Temple Christian 39

Daron Taylor had a game high 13 points, Oral Forbes had nine and Jermaine Bethel eight in the win for the playoff bound Diplomats. Dylan Musgrove and Darren Symonette both had seven and Sebrin Brooks six in the loss.

The final eight is slated to get underway 9am today. The four winners from the pools will meet in their crossover semifinal. The two winners will meet in the championship game while the two losers will play for the third place consolation.