The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

THE finale in the Family Island Division of the Bahamas National High School Basketball Championships will feature another matchup between league champions out of Bimini and Abaco.

The defending champion Gateway Academy (Bimini) will face off against Agape Christian School (Abaco) tonight to decide the 2018 title at the St George’s Gymnasium.

Agape scored a 75-66 win over Patrick J Bethel last night to advance to the first national final.

Oswald Meadows (33) and Wilton Chermise (23) combined for 56 points to lead Agape to the win. Michael Adderley scored 10 and Regan Roberts finished with nine. Dremiko McIntosh led Patrick J Bethel with 19.

Agape head coach Stephan Johnson said the championship berth was another milestone in a landmark season for his programme. “This one is special because last year we finished second in Abaco and they told us we were not good enough to come to Nationals. This year we beat Patrick J Bethel for Abaco’s Championship and they still brought them here to Nationals even though they finished second. So, it feels good to show that we are the best team in Abaco,” he said.

They opened the tournament with a blowout win over Long Island (53-16). In game two they suffered a 58-47 loss in their first matchup against Patrick J Bethel. They rebounded with a 57-42 win over Central Eleuthera and 62-56 win over South Andros to advance to the semi-finals.

Johnson discussed his team’s journey through the tournament and what they will have to do to dethrone Gateway.

“We started off well, we won that first game of the tournament against Long Island by a lot and I was interested to see how we would respond when we got tested. We lost to that same team PJB but we followed with wins over Central Eleuthera and South Andros to work our way back to the championship. In that first game against PJB we didn’t play with heart and we didn’t listen. They played with heart in the semis because we were down by 15 and we came back to win,” he said. “Against Gateway, we have to take care of the ball. We know they force turnovers. We know they beat PJB by 20 because they forced turnovers, so if we take care of the ball we have a chance.“

Gateway has run through the tournament field relatively untested to this point, winning their three games thus far by 30, 21 and 17 points.

They opened with a 66-36 win over Central Eleuthera, followed by a 42-21 win over San Salvador and an 81-64 win over PJB.

Gateway won the 2017 championship after another undefeated run through the tournament, capped by a 56-43 win over PJB.

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.