The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE Gateway Academy Eagles out of Bimini dominated the Family Island division from day one of the National High School Basketball Championships and concluded that run with the 2017 title.

The Eagles defeated the Abaco Central Marlins 56-43 last night in the first of three championships games at the St George’s Gym in Freeport, Grand Bahama.

Bradley Lightbourne finished with 18 points, 17 rebounds and six rebounds to lead the Eagles to victory. Denzel Johen finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and five steals while Lamardrae King scored 12.

Jason Petit led the Marlins with 13 points, Alexis Jeancius scored 11 and Dremecko McIntosh finished with eight.

Eagles head coach Gilbert Rolle Jr said the win was a milestone not just for his team, but for the entire island of Bimini.

“We give God glory for everything that he has done and for everything that has happened for this team. Hard work really pays off,” he said. “This is a testament of our school and our community. The guys work hard and I see the programme only growing from here.

“I have a very young team, as we are losing only one senior to graduation this year. So I think we will be very competitive for the next few years. Coming out of the half, I told the guys that we weren’t playing to our strengths and that’s when they started to catch up. We are a very small team, so we pride ourselves on tough defence. We definitely wanted to bring this win back for our island.”

Bimini opened up an early 15-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. They began the second with a basket and free throw from Dre Hudson to go up by eight. A steal and fastbreak layup from Kayshawn Strachan followed by another free throw pushed the lead 21-10 with just over five minutes left to play in the second. Jeancius finally ended the run for Abaco with a fastbreak layup. They added two more scores to reduce the deficit to just five, 21-16. The lead was reduced to three but as soon as King checked back in the game he made a three pointer to give the Eagles breathing room and a two-score lead which they took into halftime (24-20).

Johen’s pull-up jumper regained a 10-point lead (30-20) midway through the period. And the lead got up to 13 on a pair of Hudson free throws for a 33-20 lead with 2:08 left to play in the quarter. King made a late three pointer in the third quarter and Gateway took a 37-24 lead into the fourth. Both teams traded jumpers early in the fourth, but Bimini was better at forcing turnovers on the defensive end for much of the second half. Lightbourne’s free throws gave Gateway a 44-28 lead late in the period and they held on to claim the 2017 title.

Abaco Central head coach Ricardo Ferguson said he was impressed with his team’s effort and said there is much to build on for the future.

“I’m extremely proud of the way my guys played all tournament long. We fought hard from the opening game and I saw them progress throughout the year and especially in this tournament just to get to this point. The guys will be back and this was my first time coaching so I definitely believe the foundation is there for us to build. We just had too many turnovers this time out and the trip didn’t end the way we wanted, but the nationals was definitely a great experience for us.”

Abaco Central’s path to the championship opened with a 57-46 win over South Andros. They lost the first matchup to San Salvador (36-28) but rebounded to defeat North Andros 48-43. They advanced to the semi-final with 41-38 win over Central Eleuthera.

Bimini completed the tournament undefeated. They opened with a 51-30 win over North Andros, followed by another dominant 52-30 win over Long Island. They advanced to the title game with a 43-30 win over Central Eleuthera.