The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE local basketball community will shift its attention to international competition this summer as the Bahamas looks to begin a long trek toward Olympic qualification in 2020.

The senior men’s national team will prepare to participate in the 2016 Centrobasket Championship after the draw for the event was hosted Tuesday in Panama City, Panama.

The Bahamas was placed in group B alongside Mexico, Costa Rica, the US Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic. Group A includes Puerto Rico, Nicaragua, Antigua, Panama, Cuba.

The 2016 Centrobasket Championship will be hosted June 20-26 at the Roberto Duran Arena in Panama.

The Bahamas received automatic qualification to the event after their success in the last two editions of the tournament.

In 2014, the Bahamas defeated Cuba 75-64 in the gold-medal game at the Multipurpose Complex in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, led by a combined 44 points from the backcourt of Marvin Gray and Alonzo Hinds.

Gray finished with 22 points, five rebounds and four assists while Hinds’ 22 points included 4-4 shooting from three-point range and 6-6 shooting from the free throw line.

Magnum Rolle finished with 12 points and nine rebounds, Kadeem Coleby added 11 points, while Mitch Johnson chipped in with four points, seven rebounds and two blocks.

Last year, the Bahamas finished with the silver medal after a 71-65 loss to the USVI, again in Tortola, BVI.

Kadeem Coleby was the only player in double figures with 15 points and four rebounds for the Bahamas. Kentwon Smith added nine points with eight rebounds, Magnum Rolle also contributed nine points with four rebounds, Torrington Cox had eight points, Michael Bain had seven points, four rebounds and three steals and David Nesbitt chipped in with seven points and five rebounds.

The group is considered the top 10 teams from the Central American and Caribbean region tested in a round robin format. The top two teams from each group advance to semifinal where the winners will contest the gold medal and losers will play for bronze.

The top five teams in the 2016 Centrobasket Championship will automatically qualify for the Division A of the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualifiers and for the 2017 FIBA Americas Cup.

In addition, the fourth place teams of each group in the Group Phase will play for seventh place.

The top seven teams in the 2016 Centrobasket Championship will qualify for the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games.

 Panama has hosted the competition on two previous occasions, 1977 and 2006, having won the gold medal in the latter.

The Bahamas finished in seventh place at their last appearance in the Centrobasket tournament in 2014. They also recorded a fifth place finish in 2012, fifth place in 2003, fifth place in 1995 and eighth place in 1989.

Puerto Rico is the country with the most medals in the history of the competition with 22, followed by Cuba with 14 and Panama with 12, including 4 gold medals in its history (1967, 1969, 1981 and 2006).