The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The hosts CI Gibson Rattlers, Queen’s College Comets, St George’s Jaguars out of Grand Bahama and CC Sweeting Cobras are the leading contenders to advance to the championship game tonight as the Providence Basketball Club’s annual Holiday Classic comes to a close at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium.

Yesterday, on day three of the tournament, the four teams above all remained undefeated to lead pool one, two, three and four respectively. However, there were a few games played late last night and three more today, starting at 9:45am before they will know who their opponents will be when the pool chmpionship games start at 1pm.

Matches yesterday saw the CV Bethel Stingrays beat the North Andros Seminoles 40-35 before they lost 33-27 to Agape, Abaco Central stunned the RM Bailey Pacers 44-39, Zion Academy outlasted Central Eleuthera Explorers 30-22, Queen’s College blew past South Andros 47-30, St George’s outshined CR Walker 50-32 and CC Sweeting clobbered St John’s Giants 43-20.

• Here’s a summary of the earlier games played yesterday:

Cobras 43, Giants 20

In a battle of the undefeated teams for a berth into the Pool Four championship, CC Sweeting’s defence smothered St John’s as they coasted to their third consecutive victory. “It was alright. We are not at our full strength, but defensively we played alright,” said CC Sweeting’s coach Mario Bowleg. “Offensively, I didn’t like how we played. We’re not clicking like we should offensively, but that clinched our pool. Right now it doesn’t matter who we meet.”

Ken Munnlings got off to a great start, scoring six of the Cobras points as they opened a 12-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. Mullings was joined by Jamal Simon, who both ended up scoring nine points. Delmar Hamilton added seven and Tyrone Sands chipped in with six. Michael Wallace also scored nine points in a losing effort.

Eagles 33, Stingrays 27

Agape Academy pulled off their second consecutive victory after losing their opener by holding off a late surge by CV Bethel, who dropped to 1-2.

“This is a new bunch of players, who are in either grade 11, 10 or 9,” said Eagles’ coach Wayde Adderley. “Right now, we are just trying to build for next year or the future. This is a very young team with 14-year-olds playing some heavy minutes, so we are just trying to get better. We are doing alright. We can only get better. For this group, if we can make the pool championship, this will be a major success.”

Venson Ferguson led the attack with a game high 10 points, while Malik Penn had seven and James Vil helped out with seven. T’Shad Cornish scored seven in the loss for the Stingrays.

Jaguars 50, Knights 32

Grand Bahama’s St George’s continue to roll along, leading from start to finish as they outshined CR Walker to earn their berth into the Pool Three championship. They opened a 14-6 lead after the first quarter and extended it to 24-16 at the half and were ahead 39-25 at the end of the third.

“We just want to keep developing and getting better,” said Jaguars’ coach Darrel Sears. “Like we said to our guys in the locker room, it doesn’t make sense winning all of our games and then lose on championship day. If we lose, we should lose before we get to the pool championship. It doesn’t make sense to lose then and not get into the final for all the marbles.”

Franklyn Petion, who scored five points in both the first and second quarter, finished with a game high 15 points, while Kyle Smith and Shakeel Butler contributed 10 apiece for the Jaguars. Cormardo Seymour had 11 and Keanu Rolle added 10 in the loss for CR Walker.

“The tournament is going very well. I like the officiating. I like the competition. But I had to discipline about seven of my players. I had to suspend them from the tournament,” he said.

“The players nowadays are not dedicated. They just want to come and show up for games, but when it comes to practice and put ting the time in, they are not there. So we are not at full strength in this tournament.”

Comets 47, South Andros 30

As the only private school out of New Providence still undefeated, Queen’s College made this one look so easy against South Andros.

“We were more energetic than when we started the season for the BAISS (Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools),” said Comets’ coach Dwayne Smith. “We had a practice during the Christmas break and once we go through this tournament, we should be ready for the second half of BAISS. We just hope that we can go through and get into the championship in this tournament.”

Kevin Miller and Jevaughn Ferguson both had eight points in the win for the Comets.

Brendon Rolle and Keito Robinson both had 12 points in a losing effort.

Abaco Central 44, Pacers 39

The visiting team opened a 14-2 lead as they surprised RM Bailey to go on to secure the win. Bradley Taylor, who had eight points, led the way with 22 points and Donte Henchell added seven. For the Pacers, Stephen Augustine had 11, Latrel Hinszey nine and Deangelo Bain eight.

Here’s the schedule for the final day of competition today:

9:45am - CV Bethel vs CR Walker

10:30am - Anatol Rodgers vs St John’s

11:15am - Teleos Academy vs Temple Christian

1pm - Pool 1 Championship

2pm - Pool 2 Championship

3pm - Pool 3 Championship

4pm - Pool 4 Championship

5pm - Winner Pool 1 vs Winner Pool 3

6pm - Winner Pool 2 vs Winner Pool 4

7:30pm - Loser of 5pm game vs loser of 6pm game for third place consolation

8:30pm - Championship between winner of 5pm and 6pm games