The Tribune

It must sound like a scratched tape, but Carlton E Francis has done it again. The most dominant primary school basketball team this year, coached by Sherman Smith, completed the New Providence Primary Schools Sports Association’s basketball tournament by winning both the boys and girls’ title at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium on Friday.

While it was a repeat performance for the boys, who dismantled EP Roberts 27-16, the girls stayed perfect this year by improving on their fourth place finish last year by pulling off a 16-8 decision over Claridge Primary.

It was the 25th consecutive victory for the girls, who secured their fourth straight title, adding the crown to the ones they won earlier at the Temple Christian Pre-Season in November, Cybots Thanksgiving in November and the Father Marcian Peters Invitational in December.

The boys, who were runners-up in two of their previous tournaments, pushed their record to 22-4 as they snatched their first title.

Thelma Gibson got third in the boys’ division and Cleveland Eneas was third in the girls. A total of 21 teams competed in the boys’ segment of the tournament last week, while 16 participated in the girls’ division.

“Our girls were pretty strong this year. Nobody wanted to play us, but everybody wanted to see us get beat,” coach Smith said. “But I was really pleased with the performances of our boys. While I expected the girls to play as well as they did, the boys really picked up their game and they performed much better than they did at the beginning of the year.

“This boys team has improved a lot. They worked hard to go to the championship and win it. I was really impressed with the way they played.”

Coach Smith will now prepare his Carlton E Francis squads to travel to Grand Bahama to compete in the Gladstone ‘Moon’ McPhee and Cecil Thompson Basketball Tournament February 6-8.

The challenge, he said, will be to see if his girls can stay undefeated.

“I really don’t want my girls to lose any games,” he said.

“We have a big task ahead of us because Temple Christian is going and they have proved us with the most competition this year. But we are on a winning streak and we want to keep that going. Also, the boys are playing good right now and I hope that they can win another title too.”

Smith said his teams don’t intend to rest on their laurels until they have completed all of the tournaments this year. He noted that their intention is to win as many games and eventually as many tournaments as they can before the school year is over.