The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said she could not ask for a better performance than what she got from the women’s national basketball team as they won the Caribbean Basketball Championship title and in the process qualified for the 2016 CentroBasket Tournament.

This marked the third time that the Bahamas has won the title, but the first time since the organisers changed it from Caricom to the CBC. Initially, the Bahamas won the Caricom title for the first time under coach Anthony Swaby and again under coach Felix ‘Fly’ Musgrove.

But over the weekend in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas dethroned Jamaica with a 55-51 victory in what was dubbed a championship for the ages. The Bahamas had to come back from a 15-point second half deficit to secure the title at the Multi-Purpose Sports Complex in Road Town, Tortola.

McPhee-McCuin, who made history as the first female coach to win the title, said she was extremely pleased with the team’s effort, considering that they had a more youthful squad, compared to last year’s team that missed out on getting into the playoffs on the point spread.

“I just think it was a blessing. I think we had our ups and downs throughout the tournament. I think a lot of that was due to our inexperience because we had such a young team,” McPhee-McCuin said. “But we were able to pull things together, not only just from the last game, but all of the games.

“I think we just continued to get better with every game we played as we worked towards our goal, which of course was to get the gold medal.”

While the team returned home early Sunday morning, McPhee-McCuin headed back to Jacksonville, Florida where she began her Summer Basketball Camp at Jacksonville University where she just completed her third year as the head women’s basketball coach of the Dolphins.

Last year, the Bahamas finished with a 4-1 win-loss record as they rebounded from their tournament opening loss, which came back to haunt them in their bid to get into the playoffs because of the point spread. The team ended up playing for fifth place and they did it by taking their frustration out on Barbados with a 102-54 rout.

This year, the team went undefeated in their games and McPhee-McCuin attributed their turn around to the veteran leadership in players, some of whom didn’t play, but sat on the bench and helped out the younger players tremendously.

“Their presence, their insight, their leadership was essential for us to have the success that we achieved,” she said. “But at the same team, the younger players did some great things for us as well and even for me coming in and coaching the team for the second time. I kind of knew what to expect as far as what the whole landscape would be. So I was even better prepared.”

Shanae Armbrister was named the most valuable player after she led the Bahamas with a game high 16 points. She also had seven rebounds, four steals and a blocked shot on her ledger. Philicia Kelly finished with 12 points, six rebounds and two assists; Diasti Delancy had eight points and three rebounds; 16-year-old point guard Valarie Nesbitt came off the bench to contribute eight points as well; Shalonda Neely only scored six points, but pulled down a game high 17 rebounds and Ashley Moss helped out with 16 rebounds, a game high six blocks and three points.

Other members of the team were Linda Pierre, Lotoya ‘Lil Thing’ Thompson, Albertha Russell, Tracy Lewis, Malesha Petterson and Pedrica Bain.

Shenneika Smith had 15 points for Jamaica, who also got 14 points and nine rebounds from Tarita Gordon. Jennifer George chipped in with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

With the victory, the Bahamas has advanced to the 2016 CentroBasket Championships where they will have a chance to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Toyko, Japan.

“We don’t know when and where it’s going to be, but if I’m brought back I will try to retain a lot of the others and strengthen our roster with players like Jonquel (Jones) and Leashia Grant, who didn’t travel with us this year,” McPhee said. “We have some other players who didn’t travel,.

“So it’s early enough for us to start working on getting some of these players on board.

Donnie Culmer, who along with Varel Clarke-Davis assisted McPhee-McCuin, said it was truly a team effort and he certainly learn a thing or two.

“We needed everybody to pull off the victory over Jamaica,” Culmer said. “It felt good. It reminded me of 2005-2006 when the boys won. To beat Jamaica, who won it last year, was even sweeter. They were walking around the hotel dead cocky like they had it won.

“But we had some excellent coaching by Yolett. I have to give her the props that she deserve. I’m been around a lot of coaches, but she got it together. She knew what she was doing. Everything they threw at us, she was able to find a way to counteract that.”