The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

IN preparation for what they expect will be a much better regular season, the Anatol Rodgers Timberwolves took two teams to participate in the preseason basketball tournament in Marsh Harbour, Abaco where their senior boys returned with the third place trophy.

It is already a great turnaround for the Timberwolves, who didn’t win a game last year when Harcourt McCoy made his debut as the new coach.

“We realised that this is just the pre-season, but we had a good time against the competition that we met down there,” said McCoy, whose team played against the CI Gibson Rattlers, Doris Johnson Mystic Marlins, CV Bethel Stingrays and Agape Christian Academy.

“Last year, we didn’t win a game, but for us to come third, that was a really big accomplishment for us. Going into the GSSSA, most teams will say that Doris Johnson is probably ranked No.1, followed closely by CI Gibson. But we have to find a way to get into those two spots and the only way that we can do that is to get some competition moving forward.”

From November 11-16, McCoy is set to hold his D-Squad Pre-Season Basketball Tournament and for the first time, they anticipate having the St Augustine’s College Big Red Machine in the mix.

“All of the major high schools are going to be in it,” he said. “So we are hoping that we will be able to do very well and that we can look at making the playoffs when the GSSSA season is played.”

Brandon Williams, the senior point guard for the Timberwolves, said they performed very well.

“The only problem is that we need to get better on defence,” he said. “Once we can do that, we will do better.”

In the tournament in Abaco, he said they didn’t play as well as they had anticipated.

“We could do better. The next thing we will do it. We get this in the book,” he said.

Avaro Roker, who had a big dunk in the game, said he too was looking for the Timberwolves to play better.

“Unfortunately in the game against Agape, they came out stronger and we didn’t execute enough to beat them,” he said. “Eventually, that led to us getting the third place. We just wanted to prove that we can come home with something. We didn’t want to come back without a trophy.”

And Lavon Moxey, another guard, said they gave it their best shot.

“We need to work on our defence a little more and execute on offence,” he said. “If we listen to our coach and stop making those bad turnovers,” Moxey said. “We feel confident that this tournament will help us to get better for the regular season.”