The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

IT WAS another dominant performance for Team Bahamas as they remained undefeated at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation Under-16 Championships for Boys.

The Bahamas steamrolled the British Virgin Islands 101-40 yesterday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in Georgetown, Guyana.

Michael Cartwright was a force at the pivot once again and finished with a team high 17 points and nine rebounds.

Domnick Bridgewater and Samuel Hunter each finished with 14 points, while Michael Williams added 13 points and was one of three Bahamian players with at least eight rebounds.

“This team is very good,” Cartwright said prior to the tournament. “Everybody is in sync, everybody knows what they are doing, everybody knows their role and I think we have a very good chance of winning the gold.”

Chosen Levarity finished with a near double double - nine points and eight rebounds - as did Dericco Burrows who added eight points and eight rebounds.

“This team is better than the last time I played on a national team,” Levarity said. “We have a very good chance of bringing the gold back home. We bond very well and we look at each other as a family.”

After a slow start to the game where both teams struggled to score early on, the game was tied at five.

The Bahamas was able to get in sync and closed the first quarter on a 15-3 run to end the period with a 20-8 lead.

A relentless halfcourt trap for the Bahamas stifled the BVI offence all game as their ballhandlers struggled to get the ball beyond the time line.

Thompson’s  layup made it 34-11 midway through the second to give the Bahamas their first 20- point lead of the game. They ended the half on a 28-9 run capped by Brown’s buzzer beating floater to give them a 48-17 lead headed into the half.

Early in the third quarter Hunter made a three from the corner to push the lead to 40 (57-17). It was part of a 31-6 run in the quarter, which included a 20-point flurry in just over five minutes which led to a 79-23 lead headed into the fourth.

K’Moi Walters and Donaldson Layne led the BVI in scoring with 10 points apiece. 

Following a day off today, the Bahamas will face Dominica at 3:30pm tomorrow. Their final game of group play will be against Barbados 3:30pm Thursday.

The win comes off the heels of a dominant rout of Antigua and Barbuda (109-71) in the tournament opener.

Bridgewater led the Bahamas with 16 points and six assists, both game highs. He was one of seven Bahamian players in double figures including Cartwright who added 10 points and 16 rebounds,

Thompson finished with 14 points, Hunter added 12 points, while Joshua Cornish, Devonte Jennings and Christopher Johnson each finished with 11.

The Bahamas is among a group of 10 teams for the boys’ championship. Group A includes the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Dominica. Group B includes Aruba, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and the hosts Guyana.

The top three teams, both men and women, earn berths to the Centro Basket Under-17 Championship where they compete for spots in the FIBA Americas Under-18 Cup, from which they can qualify for the FIBA Under-19 World Cup or the Youth Olympics.