The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMIAN high school basketball players are having their opportunity to play on the floor of Atlantis’ Imperial Arena thanks to a partnership between the resort and KSA Events.

KSA Events is currently hosting the Basketball Sand Jam at the resort featuring a group of local teams and visitors from Canada and the United States.

In yesterday’s session, the HO Nash Lions junior girls and St Augustine’s College senior boys took centre stage against the visiting schools.

The Lions took on Mountain Vista out of Colorado, while the Big Red Machine ended the afternoon with a 61-48 loss to Eerie Cathedral Prep out of Pennsylvania.

The Big Red Machine trailed 0-7 early in the first quarter, but rallied to trail just 10-8 at the end of the period. They took their first lead early in the second quarter as a tightly contested period featured four ties and five lead changes.

SAC led 23-21 at the half.

Eerie Cathedral Prep opened the third quarter making four of their first six shots to take command for good. They outscored the Big Red Machine 26-11 in the quarter, highlighted by a buzzer beating runner as time expired to take a 47-32 lead headed into fourth. SAC would trim the lead to as little as eight, before the visitors would pull away late for the win.

The Sand Jam, which concludes on December 13, is the third in a series of events hosted at the Atlantis resort this year - the Beach Bash (November 28-December 3) and Beach Bash 2 (December 3-7).

Other local teams which have participated in the events include the CI Gibson Rattlers, CC Sweeting Cobras, Queen’s College Comets, Harbour Island All-Age and Kingsway Academy Saints.

Today, Harbour Island All-Age junior boys will take on Mountain Vista at 3pm, followed by Queen’s College vs Upper St Clair in senior boys’ play.

KSA Events, the nation’s premier host of high school sporting events, is proud to host the KSA Events National Tournaments in Anaheim, California, Orlando, Florida, Nassau, Bahamas, Denver, Colorado, New York, NY and Washington DC.

As with all KSA Events competitions, participating teams come nationwide from Alaska to Florida and from Massachusetts to California, providing a true national competition format that brings together teams who would otherwise never meet on the field.

According to its website, one of the primary functions of the KSA events is to provide scholarship opportunities.

“The primary mission of KSA Events is to promote the educational aspects of athletic participation, including teamwork, sportsmanship, work ethic, and responsibility, to name a few. Furthermore, our goal is to foster an environment where classroom learning is valued and rewarded just as much as athletic achievement on the basketball court, creating a truly balanced education.”