The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IT certainly wasn’t the type of start that head coach Quentin ‘Three Ounce’ Hall envisioned for his national team in the FIBA CentroBasket Under-16 Championships at the Arena Roberto Duran in Panama City, Panama.

The team fell behind 16-12 after the first quarter and 38-17 at the half and they were never able to get back into the game as Puerto Rico went on to extend their lead to 58-27 going into the final break before they went on to post a huge 78-40 victory.

Puerto Rico did a good job of moving the ball around before they took a shot, but it seemed as if the Bahamas was a little more impatient as they attempted to score the quick basket.

Even in the third quarter as they came out of the locker room a little more motivated to get back into the ball game, they made too many costly turnovers that the Puerto Ricans were able to capitalise on.

In the fourth, the Bahamas tried to slow the ball down and passed it around, but the Puerto Ricans came up with a swamping defence to take the ball out of the hands of the Bahamians.

Deangelo Mackey and Franco Miller provided a 1-2 punch for the Bahamas.

Mackey, who scored the final basket in the game on a buzzer-beating lay-up on an offensive rebound, led the way with nine points on 3-of-8 shooting from the field, 1-of-2 from the three-point line and 2-for-2 from the free throw line in 26 minutes and 40 seconds. Miller, who played 25:59 minutes, had eight points going 3-for-8 from the field and 2-for-5 in three-pointers.

Corey Sands added six points with five rebounds, Michael Williams had four points as did Shyrone Kemp off the bench. Malik Cleare contributed three points with four rebounds and a side high two assists and Ackeem Hanna, Ivoine Ingraham and Jyles Ettienne all had two points.

Ettienne also had a team high five rebounds, while both Hanna and Ingraham had three apiece. Jevaughn Ferguson didn’t score, but he had a game high four block shots with one steal.

Puerto Rico had a balanced scoring attack with two players in double figures. All 12 players on their roster scored at least two or more points.

At the end of the first quarter, the Bahamas got six points from Franco Miller and four from Deangelo Mackey. But in the second quarter, the Bahamas got a three-pointer to cut the deficit to 24-17. That was all they could muster as they were outscored 13-0 going into the half.

They managed to turn up their offence in the second half, although Puerto Rico outscored the Bahamas 20-10 in the third and 20-13 in the fourth.

The Bahamas, which committed 22 turnovers and only got 22 points from inside the paint, will have to regroup when they are slated to play host Panama 8pm tonight. Their third game is scheduled for 6pm Thursday against Guatemala.

Hall is being assisted by coaches Neville ‘Manny’ Adderley and Wayde Adderley.