The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

Centre Adam Johnson, who directed their offence from the top of the key and still managed to anchor their defence in the paint, had an all-around game to pace the Jordan Prince William Falcons to an impressive 59-44 win over the Charles W Saunders Cougars.

The senior boys’ game between the two Baptist schools in the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools was played Wednesday at Charles W Saunders. While it was the first complete game for the Falcons, whose opener on Monday at Queen’s College was halted due to darkness going into the fourth quarter, the Cougars dropped to 1-1 after knocking off the St Anne’s Bluewaves 68-64.

Despite the win, coach Ernest Saunders said he expected a much better performance from his Falcons.

“The performance wasn’t up to my expectations,” he said. “We could do 10 times better.”

But after getting in their first completed game, Saunders said they’re just going to take it one game at a time.

“Our defence is not up to par where we would like it to be and our offensive system is still in the negative,” Saunders said. “We’re not creating our offence of our defence. Our offensive system is still off. We’re not swinging the ball around and getting into the paint as much as I would like for us to do.”

Saunders, however, was pleased with the movement they got offensively as Johnson helped to work the ball from the top of the key and managed to manoeuvre inside the paint to finish with a game high 24 points. In fact, Johnson had 10 points in the second quarter as the Falcons came from a slim 18-17 deficit at the end of the first quarter to go up 34-21 at the half.

Jordan Prince Williams went to a man-to-man press in the second half and they managed to stay in control of the game as Charles W Saunders had difficulty getting the ball over the half-court line and when they did. Johnson was able to challenge their shots defensively with his lanky range, swatting away a couple of shots.

What Johnson did do offensively, the Falcons got from versatile Micah Bethel, who had 15 points, including nine in the third quarter. Jeffery Oliver added seven and both Shakim Sweeting and Koy Martin chipped in with five apiece.

In a losing effort, Craig Knowles scored 20, canning 12 in the first quarter. But he was tightly guarded and was only able to come up with two in the second, four in the third and two more in the fourth. Kanii Johnson added eight, six of which came in the first quarter as well.

Clement Rolle, head coach for the Cougars, said the guard play was horrible and that made the difference in the game.

“I think they had a hangover from the last game when our guard play was excellent,” Rolle said. “Today, Prince Williams put on a little trap, but we went over a few things to break it and it was like it went in and came right out. My guard play disappointed me and we just had too many turnovers.”

Rolle said they are going to have to go back to the drawing board and work “10 times” harder because “if the guards can’t advance the ball, we won’t be able to do anything. We can’t depend on the bigs to run the ball and step it up in the paint. We just have to find a balanced attack.”

Against the Bluewaves on Monday, Knowles scored 30 points and Anthon Bascom had 12. Rolle said if he could have gotten that same type of consistency, his Cougars would have been in a much better position to compete against the Falcons.