The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

AFTER breaking into the winning column, the College of the Bahamas Caribs men’s basketball team is eager to continue their streak when they travel to South Carolina to play a series of three games in South Carolina this weekend.

The Caribs, who lost their pre-season back-to-back games to Florida Memorial University during their Homecoming two weeks ago, pulled off a 76-73 victory over the Pyramid Food Rockets in their season opener in the New Providence Basketball Association at the DW Davis Gymnasium on Monday night.

Now they are preparing to leave town on Thursday for South Carolina where they will play Denmark Technical College 6pm Friday and on Saturday, they are slated to face Clafflin University at 3pm before they return home on Sunday.

“I don’t want to say that I’m ungrateful for the win, but I felt as if we could have done a few things differently in the second half to keep our composure,” said Caribs head coach Bacchus Rolle. “They really, really jumped out to a good first half, shooting the ball very well and I knew we couldn’t sustain that shooting percentage.

“But I felt they changed the defence a bit in the second quarter and we took longer to adjust. But as far as our guys are concerned, their confidence is up, so I like our chances going into South Carolina.”

After playing two hard fought games against FMU, Rolle said he knows that his Caribs will be well-tested against Denmark and Clafflin this weekend. But he said his players have been researching the teams and he’s looking forward to them going there and competing very well.

“We have a few more pieces that can really help us this year,” Rolle said. “Last year, we had to go with certain players because that was all we had. But we have a few more pieces that came to the team and has given us a different type of toughness. So I think we’re a little better than we were last year.

“We have a player in Brian Jennings, who is a monster on the boards. He doesn’t mind not scoring. He wants to rebound and block. That type of attitude, you have to welcome. We also have Kemsy Sylvestre, who is an unbelievable talent. He is able to do a lot of things to pull some of the pressure off Justin Smith. Then we have a backup point guard in Ramon Dames and the shooter in Davon Adderley, so with these new additions, we should have a much better team this year.”

Sylvestre, who played last year with the Stingers, lit up the nets for a game high 18 points, shooting 7-of-13 from the field and was 3-for-10 from behind the three-point arch to lead COB to their NPBA season opener.

Smith finished with nine points and he and Sylvestre both had four assists. Justin Munroe added eight points with 10 rebounds and Lowtadus Edgecombe came off the bench and scored 15 points.

After falling behind 20-19 at the end of the first quarter, the Caribs rebounded by going on a 30-8 spurt in the second quarter for a 49-28 advantage at the half. However, the Rockets turned things around with a 23-14 run in the third to trail 63-51 going into the fourth quarter.

Tomeko Moxey scored a side high 16 points with five rebounds to lead the Rockets. Christoff Stuart had 15 points and eight rebounds, Rashad Saunders had 12 points and six rebounds and Henderson Curry helped out with 10 points and five rebounds.

Also Monday night, the Island Game Pros defeated the Elite Basketball Club 105-96.

Colton Albury had a game high 23 points and 13 rebounds to pace the Pros. Steven Miller had 19 points, Adorn Charlow 15 points and nine rebounds, Judino Wilson and Kenol Petit-Home both had 12 points with five and three rebounds respectively while Jimmy Mackey had nine points and five rebounds and Dantyel Jolly added eight points.