The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

A commitment that began long before the offseason was the driving force behind an historic season for the Jordan Prince William Lady Falcons basketball programme, and it culminated with a national title.

The Lady Falcons routed the Doris Johnson Mystic Marlins 52-30 in the championship game at the St George’s Gym in Freeport, Grand Bahama, last night.

Terell Cox delivered an MVP performance with 16 points and eight rebounds, Shaniqua Thompson scored nine while Kristenique Moss and Judy Forbes each scored eight.

Tanea Bowleg led the Mystic Marlins with 14 points and Briontae Riley scored nine and grabbed a game high 15 rebounds.

The BAISS champions Falcons played perhaps their best game of the season, according to head coach Terrence McSweeney.

“I want to thank God for bringing us here to cap off my third season with this programme in this way. This shows you what BAISS has been doing over the years but in particular what we have been doing with the Lady Falcons, home of the Dirty Birds. We really worked this year,” he said.

“The top players on Doris Johnson, they came through us so we knew their mindset. They beat us earlier in this tournament by three points, they beat us in the Geneva Rutherford tournament by three points, I told them we have to beat this team to prove a point to them.”

With the bulk of his team returning next season, McSweeney looks for the “Dirty Birds” to contend once again.

“We are only graduating two seniors. The rest of the girls will be back as underclassmen. We played a young lady in seventh grade today and she was able to make a contribution and that is just an example of what the Falcons programme is doing,” He said.

Thompson scored the first basket of the game on an out of bounds set play and Robynn Porter scored on a turnaround on the next possession to take an early 4-0 lead.

The Falcons went ahead 7-1 before the Mystic Marlins made their first field goal - a three pointer from Bowleg. The Falcons took an early 11-6 after the first.

The Mystic Marlins played from behind throughout the second, but another Bowleg score made it 13-9. Cox made a late three pointer to put the Falcons up nine, but Bowleg was able to answer on the next possession with her three pointer as time expired. The Mystic Marlins took a 20-14 lead into the half.

Doris Johnson scored on the opening possession of the second half and Kovanique Rolle’s layup reduced it to just two before Cox responded with another corner three. Cox was fouled on a three-point attempt on the next possession and made all three free throws to push the lead to eight (26-18). Thompson scored again to give her team a 30-20 lead with 3:46 left to play in the third and the Falcons took a 36-22 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Falcons offence continued to click on all cylinders in the fourth quarter and went ahead by as much as 16 at one point. Moss was a force on the defensive glass all game long for the Falcons. Her rebound, put back and converted three-point play gave her team a 46-30 lead with 2:47 left to play in regulation.

Mystic Marlins head coach Kevon Spence said it was a heartbreaking loss for his team who looked to conclude a second consecutive season with a sweep of the marquee events.

“Well I know nothing will console them at this time. They worked all season for this and it’s just hard to take a loss at this time knowing that we won many games before just to come and lose at the big one,” he said.