The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

WITH Jay Philippe and Denarii Rolle adding more youth in their line-up, the Politicians finally prevailed over the Pastors in the Peace On Da Street Classic's marquee matchup at the Kendal Isaacs Gymnasium on Sunday night.

With a convincing 70-51 triumph, the Politicians celebrated as they turned back the Pastors for the first time in the 15 years that organiser Dr Carlos Reid hosted the game during the 31 years he held the basketball classic.

"It was simply amazing representing the Politicians," said Philippe, the defeated Free National Movement candidate for the Bain and Grants Town constituency in the May 12 general elections.

"I would have told Carlos Reid that I played in that same tournament when I was a kid, playing for the Wolverines, coached by Dennis Pratt, when I was 12-13-14 years old and now fast forward 25 years playing in the tournament as a Politician."

Philippe, a former sports broadcaster and a basketball coach, said when team captain Leonardo Lightbourne, the Progressive Liberal Party's Member of Parliament for North Andros, recruited him about three weeks ago, he accepted the challenge.

"It was a great game and I knew that I needed to be aggressive on the offensive end," said Philippe, one of the winningest coaches coming out of the Grand Bahama high school basketball programmes. 

"With me being one of the younger guys on the court, I had to look for my shots and be aggressive early and I did that."

As the most valuable player with a game high 25 points and four rebounds, Philippe said he couldn't do it without his team-mates, which came from both sides of the political divide and they put on a show for the fans. 

While Philippe led the attack for the Politicians, Lightbourne, playing in the middle, finished with 11 points, point guard Clay Sweeting had nine, Quinton Lightbourne eight, Zane Lightbourne seven, Rolle five, Shanendon Cartwright three and Kingsley Smith chipped in with two.

For the Pastors, Dr Don Clarke of Emmanuel Prophetic & Deliverance Center led with 18 points. Delvonne Duncombe had 12 and Reid was held to six on a pair of three-pointers.

The Politicians led 19-6 after the first quarter and held a 33-25 margin at the half. They stayed ahead on a 14-13 run in the third and took advantage of the fourth with a 23-13 spurt to secure the win. 

Sweeting, the PLP's MP for Central & South Eleuthera, has been playing in the game for the past five years and so it was good to finally leave the gym as a winner. "It's always good to have that camaraderie of people from both sides, not only to play together, but to win," Sweeting said.

"Since I started playing, we have always been close. In one of the games, we went to overtime.

"Last year, we were leading by five with 50 seconds to go and we lost that. But we added Jay and Denarii and they were able to open the game up for some additional players. We came out early and we held it to the end."

After holding onto the title for as long as we have, Reid, the pastor at The Kingdom Summit Ministries, said it was good to relinquish their crown for one year to the Politicians.

"They had some youth with Jay Philippe and Denarii Rolle, so they had a good team," Reid said. "It brings a new dimension to the tournament. Sometimes it could get boring beating up on the same people all the time. So it's good that they get bragging rights for this year. But we will be back next year."

The tournament also featured several divisions with Valor Elite winning the church title 37-27 over the Lighthouse, the Baintown Stars winning the constituency title 32-27 over the Bain & Grants Town Cybots, the IBA Bahamas pulling off the U20 title 37-27 over the Rotary Diplomats and the Falcons Elite winning 24-20 over the Island Dreams for the 13U title. 

Corey Sands was crowned three-point shooting champion, while Tianno took home the slam dunk title.