SPORTS SECTION E
MONDAY, APRIL 30, 2018
Giants, Saints national basketball champions By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net A PAIR of new national champions emerged from the Bahamas Basketball Federation’s Bunny Levarity National Round Robin and featured a title split between New Providence and Grand Bahama. The NPBA’s Commonwealth Bank Giants won the Division I title while the Coca Cola Reach Out Saints protected home court in Grand Bahama with the Division II title at the Jack Hayward Gymnasium in Freeport, Grand Bahama. Division I Commonwealth Bank Giants – 86 Fast Track Gym Rats - 80
As they did for much of the season, D’Shon Taylor and Michael Bain Jr were the catalysts behind the Giants’ offence en route to the win. Taylor finished with a game high 26 points, six rebounds and five assists while Bain added 20 points, seven assists and five rebounds. Jeffrey Henfield scored 10, Gamaliel Rose added 10 points and seven rebounds while Tehran Cox scored eight. Trevor Bain led the Gym Rats with 18 points, Franklyn Petion scored 13 while Kiplin Fowler, Keno Russell and Desmond Butler all finished with eight points apiece. The Giants’ ball movement led to their efficient offensive production all game long with 36 of their field goals coming on 22 assists. Tied at 72 with 4:21 left to play
in regulation, the Giants went on a 9-1 run to put the game away. Taylor sparked the run with his jumper followed by another from Bain. Trevor Bain split a pair at the line for the Gym Rats but the Giants got back to their run with a jumper from Henfield and a three from Bain gave the Giants an 81-73 lead with 2:34 left to play. The Gym Rats came within five but several key baskets down the stretch sealed the title for Commonwealth Bank. The Giants got out to a 12-4 lead in the first quarter and took a 21-16 lead at the end of the period. The Gym Rats tied the game at 23 early in the second quarter when Devon Clark made the second of two free throws. The Giants rebounded with a 14-4 run and took their first double
figure lead of the game when Bain made a three pointer to make the score 37-27 with 3:36 left in the half. Jabar Lightbourne’s late layup brought the Gym Rats within three, but Bain followed with his second three of the quarter on the ensuing possession. They led 42-36 at the half. Fast Track would trim the deficit to just a single possession at several points in the third, but were unable to tie or take control. Henfield’s late jumper with 33 seconds left gave the Giants a 59-56 lead headed into the fourth and they would go on to outscore the Gym Rats by three in the final frame. The national championships made its way back to the second city (Freeport) after it was hosted
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Bahamas winless in Beach Soccer Cup By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
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he home team scored the final goal of the Bahamas Beach Soccer Cup but finished the tournament winless and in fourth place in the final standings. The Bahamas suffered a 4-2 loss to the United States in the third place match last night at the National Beach Soccer Stadium in the tournament presented by Beach Soccer Worldwide. Mexico took the Cup championship with a 5-4 win over Spain. The United States got three goals from team captain Nicolas Perera and another goal from Jason Dos Santos en route to the win. The Bahamas got goals from Lesly St Fleur and the final shot a header from Daron Beneby with 17 seconds left to play. “It is an A class effort, unfortunately we didn’t come out with the result that we wanted, but when you step out onto the pitch, win, lose, or draw you want it to be a learning experience. To play at this level we know the amount of work we have to do and the number of games we have to play in order to maintain,” said Bahamas team captain Gavin Christie. “We have to introduce the young players to the sport to keep pushing the younger guys like myself. So it was a good experience for them this tournament and hopefully in another year or so they will be the stars of the team.” The Americans’ first shot on goal early in the second period struck the goalpost just beyond outstretched arms of Bahamian goalkeeper Julio Jemison. Perera would score in the box just moments later at the 7:39 mark. Dwayne Forbes had an opportunity for the equaliser on a
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MEN’S 4 X 400 TEAM 2ND AT PENN RELAYS By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net WITH another outstanding anchor leg from Alonzo Russell, the men’s 4 x 400 metre team placed second behind the United States of America in the much anticipated USA versus the World showdown while the St Augustine’s College Big Red Machine got into a couple high school finals at the 124th version of the Penn Relays. On the final day of competition Saturday at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Russell joined the team of Ramon Miller, Teray Smith and Michael Mathieu as they clocked three minutes and 02.54 seconds to finish behind the USA that won in 3:01.31. Jamaica had to settle for third in 3:03.12. Russell got the baton in third place from Mathieu and kept his composure until the back stretch where he passed Jamaica’s Jermaine Gayle. He went after American Mike Berry and although he caught him coming off the final curve, he didn’t have enough left in the tank to accelerate to the front. It was the second time in two weeks that Russell has anchored the Bahamas to a second place. At the recent Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia, Russell was on the anchor leg as he chased Botswana’s Isaac Makwala through the finish line. The rest of the team comprising of Ojay Ferguson, Smith and Stephen Newbold had to settle for the silver as Botswana clinched the gold.
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GIBSON WINS 400M HURDLES AT DRAKE RELAYS By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
THE BAHAMAS suffered a 4-2 loss to the US in the third place match last night at the national beach soccer stadium. Mexico took the Cup championship with a 5-4 win over Spain. Photo: Shawn Hanna/Tribune Staff
Darnette Weir new president of the BLTA By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
FLAG FOOTBALL
Darnette Weir will serve as the new president of the Bahamas Lawn Tennis Association. During the annual general meeting held on Thursday at the National Tennis Centre, Weir and nine of her slate of officers were voted in. Weir, the incumbent secretary general, replaces outgoing president Elwood Donaldson, who didn’t seek another term in office. Joining Weir on the board are Ceron Rolle as first vice president, Terran Rodgers as second vice president, Bjorn Ferguson as treasurer, Timothy Dames as assistant treasurer, Chilean Burrows as secretary and Nadine Munroe as assistant secretary. Council members are Brent Johnson, Philip Major Jr, Perry Newton Jr, Marvin Rolle and Wesley Rolle. “I had submitted a full slate before the elections because
persons normally just we have on the board, show up to the AGM and I think we can transthey were nominated,” form or re-brand the Weir said. association.” “I decided that I For the next two years, wanted to present a platusing the theme: “Transform and so I selected forming the Tennis the persons who I Arena,” Weir and her wanted on my team. In officers will use the foldoing that, I think we lowing as her platform: would have the same * To bridge the vision and goals and the gap within the tennis chemistry to fulfil those community goals. That was why I * To focus on grasstook that route.” root tennis in recruiting In the end, it paid off. raw talent amongst WEIR “I wanted persons who underprivileged children I feel would be a worker * To make the Bahabecause we have a lot of things to mas Lawn Tennis Association do and I want people who will be financially stable to implement willing to take the association to needed programmes to grow the next level,” she stated. tennis and to comfortably cover “I think we have an ambitious platform and with the people SEE PAGE 3
GRAND Bahamian national record holder Jeffery Gibson powered from behind for a victory in the men’s 400m hurdles at the Drake Relays in Des Moines, Iowa. And Purdue Boilermaker Devynne Charlton saw her bid for an upset in the women’s 100m hurdles bumped out on the seventh hurdle. During the meet on Saturday in the Drake Stadium at Drake University, Gibson trailed in third place for the majority of the race until he cleared the last flight of 10 hurdles. That’s when he got a clean clearance and he surged past American leader Bershawn Jackson, who clipped his bar. The 6-foot, 4-inch Gibson, running for Nike in lane six, used his height to get the extra steps to the finish line to clock 49.09 seconds for the win. Jackson, coming out of a brief retirement to run for Nike as well, slipped to fourth place in 49.64 in lane four after he was passed by three other competitors, including Jamaica’s Annsert Whyte, who was fourth in 49.34. “I know he caught me very early and this is a 400m hurdles, so you still have a lot of race to run,” said Gibson in a post interview with American Butch Johnson after the race. “I know I’m in my own lane and I’m focusing on my own run.”
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