By BRENT STUBBS
IT’S not how you start, nor how you get there, but more importantly, it’s how you finish.
• The Finish Line, a weekly column, seeks to invoke commentary on the state of affairs of the local sports scene, highlighting the highs and the lows, the thrills and the spills and the successes and failures as we transgress from one week to the next.
The Week That Was
There is still a lot of buzz around the upcoming track and field season with the performances of some of the collegiate athletes and the performances of two Grand Bahamian basketball players who are also making a name for themselves in the United States of America, along with a Bahamian in the National Basketball Association.
And there is even more local excitement as the New Providence Basketball Association and New Providence Women’s Basketball Association are gearing up to reunite this weekend for the first time in more than a decade with the love affair expected to intensify on Valentine’s Day with the All-Star Classic. There was so much going on and so little time to deal with it.
Cox/Charlton Record-
Setting Performances
It’s only the indoor season, but if their performances are any indication, look for sprinter Carmeisha Cox and sprinter/hurdler Devynne Charlton to have an exceptional sophomore year for the Boilermakers track and field team at Purdue University.
The two roommates, who signed their letters of intent together at a special function hosted by their local track club - Star Trackers - at the home of their major sponsor, JR McDonald of Gregco Limited, on Paradise Island two years ago, are off to an impressive start.
I guess there will always be the argument of who is the better as the two look to continue a friendly rivalry that they experienced while here at home with Cox competing for the Aquinas College Aces and Charlton running for the St Augustine’s College Big Red Machine.
In their first head-to-head confrontation at the 20th annual Gene Edmonds Invitational on January 10, Charlton got the edge as she won the 200m in 24.59, edging out Cox, who did 24.61. Two meets later, Cox came back to take Charlton’s record. Charlton, however, is a triple threat. Not only is she in pursuit of regaining the mark in the one-lap race on the 200m track, but she also holds the Boilermakers’ 60m and 60m hurdles records.
And for good measure, the duo are ranked among the top 10 in their respective events in the Big Ten Conference. None of their times - Cox’s 24.09 nor Charlton’s have cracked the top 20, but Charlton is pegged in a two-way tie for 20th in the 60m hurdles in 8.23 and 49th in the 60m in 7.39.
They represent the first two big names to emerge together on the collegiate scene at the same university since sprinter Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie and quarter-miler Tonique Williams suited up for the University of Georgia Bulldogs. However, that didn’t last as Ferguson-McKenzie went on to have a Hall of Fame career at UG, while Williams left and took her talents to the University of South Carolina where she shined as a Gamecock.
Interestingly enough, at the helm of their tenure at UG was Bahamian head coach Norbert Elliott, who has since moved on and is now an assistant at Purdue where another Bahamian, Rolando ‘Lonnie’ Greene, is the head coach. If that’s any indication, the two coaches should be able to ensure that both Cox and Charlton enjoy a harmonious relationship as Boilermakers.
Together, the quartet should make melody as a team.
This weekend, their focus will be at the Razorback Invitational hosted by the University of Arkansas, home of the 2015 NCAA Indoor Championships in March. They will be joined by a number of other Bahamian athletes, including Shavez Hart, who still holds the world- leading time of 20.76 seconds that he posted in College Station, Texas, on January 17.
Hart, the 22-year-old senior, is also tied with the sixth best time of 20.90 that he ran last weekend. So, not only are the women regaining some of the prominence that the Bahamas once had on the collegiate scene, but Hart is making sure that the men are not left behind. What a great season to look forward to.
Bahamians on
the hard floor
Jonquel Jones, the female with the fabulous pronunciation of her name, is having a sensational junior year for the George Washington Colonials after they posted a Thanksgiving Tournament victory in her hometown of Grand Bahama in November.
The 6-foot, 4-inch forward who is majoring in criminal justice was named Atlantic 10 women’s basketball Player of the Week for the fourth straight week and sixth time overall this season, the league announced on Monday. The award covers games played January 19-25.
She posted a pair of double-doubles in leading the Colonials to wins over A-10 rivals Duquesne and La Salle to extend their winning streak to 16. She averaged team highs of 17.0 points, 16.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game, and she was a perfect 10-for-10 from the foul line.
Jones and the Colonials, who are 18-2 overall and 7-0 in the Alantic-10 Conference, are slated to be back in action Saturday night when they visit Revolutionary Rival George Mason. She’s only the third Bahamian female to make it directly from high school into a major division one programme, following in the footsteps of Waltiea Rolle, who played for the North Carolina Tar Heels before she went on to play as the first Bahamian in the WNBA and Yolett McPhee-McCuin, who played for the Clemson Tigers only to become the first Bahamian to become a head coach for a division school at Jacksonville University.
With another year to go and not a chance to leave school before she completes her senior eligiblity, Jones is already setting herself up to become the second Bahamian to make it to the WNBA.
Another Grand Bahamian, with a name that is also an interesting one, Buddy Hield, was named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week for the second time for the Olkahoma Sooners. Hield, who was also named Big 12 Player of the Week on November 17, has scored at least 20 points in four of five Big 12 outings and led the team with 13 points in the other contest.
In conference play his scoring output has increased and he has led the Sooners in four of their last six games.
Hield finished with 15 points as the N0.24 Oklahoma defeated Texas Tech 81-36 on Wednesday night. The Sooners, who were in town to play in the Battle 4 Atlantis during the Thanksgiving weekend, will be back in action against Oklahoma State Saturday night at Stillwater, Oklahoma.
The way he’s performing, Hield could be the next Bahamian to play in the NBA when he’s done with Oklahoma. If he does, he will join Golden State Warriors’ guard Klay Thompson. The son of Bahamian two-time NBA champion Mychal ‘Sweet Bells’ Thompson, of the Los Angeles Lakers, is coming off a memorable night against the Sacramento Kings on Friday (January 23).
The 24-year-old Thompson, who is tipped to be a reserve on the West All-Star team, had a historic 37 points in a quarter and ended up with a career high 52 points, shooting 16-of-25 from the field, canned 11-of-15 from behind the three-point arch and 9-of-10 from the free throw line.
What a night for Thompson. What a night for the NBA as Thompson broke a couple of records, one of which is being refuted by legendary George Gervin. Whatever Hall of Famer Gervin says, the fact of the matter is you can’t take away the performance of Thompson.
A Man to Remember
As this week closes out, we pause to pay our respects to the late Colin ‘Troppy’ Knowles, who passed away on Wednesday after an illness with cancer.
Knowles was what could be described as a sports fanatic, having competed in track and field, basketball, softball and baseball. He went on to coach at all levels of those disciplines and even extended it as a national coach on the men and women national teams in softball.
He eventually married one of the greatest all-around female athletes the Bahamas has ever produced in Oria ‘Big O’ Wood-Knowles, the daughter of the late James ‘Jim’ Wood, who passed away in December.
My interaction with Knowles was two-fold in that I was associated with him through my sports reporting, but our paths also crossed as executives and coaches in the Baptist Sports Council. Quite frankly, Knowles was the type of individual who had to get his point across, but at the same time, he always wanted to see everybody achieve their best.
One of the problems that Knowles felt was a problem with local sports was that there was no proper planning. He felt that each and every organisation should have a short-term and long-term goal that can be implemented, even if the persons who initiated have gone off the scene.
I’m sure Knowles didn’t leave this earth without imparting a lot of the knowledge that he had to those who were eager to listen to him. He has certainly left his footprints in the sand of time. May his soul rest in peace.
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