By RENALDO DORSETT
Sports Reporter
rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
WE may be running out of superlatives to describe just how dominant the Bahamas junior national team has been in overwhelming the competition at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation U16 Championships.
The Bahamas scored a tournament high and delivered the most lopsided win of the event thus far with a 125-21 win over Dominica yesterday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in Georgetown, Guyana.
Seven Team Bahamas players reached double figures and every member of the 12-man roster reached the scorebook as they moved to 3-0 in the tournament thus far.
Domnick Bridgewater led the team with a game high 20 points and nine steals, Chosen Levarity had 18 points and nine rebounds, Samuel Hunter scored 13, Derrico Burrows and Devonte Jennings each added 12 points, Alfredo Brown scored 10 and Christopher Johnson finished with a double double - 11 points and 12 rebounds.
“This is a well balanced all around team. We are very strong in every area. We have shooters, dribblers and post players,” Johnson said before the team left for Guyana. “We have everything to bring back the gold.”
Jennings also had a game high eight assists, while Michael Williams grabbed a game high 14 rebounds. Michael Cartwright also finished with six points and seven rebounds.
“All we have to do is play hard,” Jennings said. “We need to go out there and execute.”
The Bahamas scored on the opening tip and followed with easy baskets on their first four possessions. Hunter’s fastbreak dunk made it 8-0 in just 1:10 of gametime.
Dominica made a free throw to stop the run, but the Bahamas scored another six points before Dominica made its first field goal of the game nearly six minutes in.
The Bahamas led 34-8 at the end of the first quarter and led 61-11 at the half.
They opened the third on an 18-0 run before Dominica finally reached the scoreboard out of the intermission.
The Bahamas took a 93-17 lead into the fourth quarter en route to eventually finishing with a tournament high 125.
Defensively, the Bahamas forced 58 turnovers, 52 of which were steals. They also limited Dominica to just 12 per cent shooting from the field and zero fast break points.
As the final score would indicate the Bahamas held a staggering edge statistically. They scored 98 points in the paint, 40 fastbreak points, and 66 points off the bench.
They also won the rebounding battle 66-33, and dished 25 assists.
The Bahamas shot 49 per cent from the field and 33 per cent from long range, but again struggled at the free throw line at just 58 per cent.
It was the third consecutive game they reached the 100-point barrier after a 109-71 win over Antigua and Barbuda followed by a 101-40 win over the British Virgin Islands.
The Bahamas will look to complete group play undefeated when they face Barbados today at 3:30pm. The reclassification medal round begins on Friday.
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 U-18 Cup, from which they can qualify for the FIBA U19 World Cup or the Youth Olympics.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID