SPORTS SECTION E
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2018
Bennet Davis announces his retirement By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
N
ational team forward Bennet Davis has announced that he will retire from professional basketball after an 11-year career which spanned 10 countries across the globe. Davis, 34, took to social media to thank his loyal group of friends, family members and supporters that have aided the development of his career. “Eleven years pro and 16 plus years of blood, sweat and tears. It’s been a journey full of ups, downs and fun all rolled into one. I’ve been blessed to represent my country ‘The Bahamas’ and play all over the world providing for my family
through basketball,” he said in a Facebook post. “Unfortunately, the accumulation of small injuries has finally taken its toll; so at the age of 34 years young I bow out gracefully.” Davis spent the 2017 season with MAFC Budapest of the Hungarian Basketball League, the highest level league of basketball in the country and his second stint in Hungary. He averaged 14 points and 7.9 rebounds per game through 16 contests. In 2016, the 6’9” forward played for a pair of French clubs. His latest stop was as a member of SAP Vaucluse in the French NM1 league. Earlier in the season, he also played for Saint Chamond in French Pro B league. The 2015 season was his first in France and Davis helped his Union
Basket Chartes Metropole club to a playoff berth and averaged 13 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. Davis spent parts of the 2014 season with three clubs, Kaposvari KK of the Hungarian NBIA (19 games), KK Zadar of the Croatian A-1 Liga (4 games), and GreenTops Netanya of the Israeli Premier League (11 games). For the year he averaged 9.7 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. He had his most productive stint with Kaposvari where he averaged 12.8 points and 7.2 rebounds per game. In the 2012-13 season, Davis suited up for Marso NYKK in Hungary where he averaged 16.5 points and 8.9 rebounds per game.
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By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
DOMINICK BRIDGEWATER, of the Bahamas, in action for the Bahamas. He also competed in last weekend’s preseason tournament of the Avant Garde Tain Tournon Basketball Club in Tain, France. the University of Kentucky Wildcats as a member of the Bahamas’ select squad. He led the team to the 2017 GSSSA Senior Boys Championship and for the past two editions of the National High School Championships, he was the tournament’s leading scorer
By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
and was named an all-tournament selection. At the junior national team level, Bridgewater was also a member of a pair of squads to represent the country.
BENNET DAVIS, of the Bahamas, has announced that he will retire from professional basketball after an 11-year career which spanned 10 countries across the globe.
vision. He needs to improve his shooting and shoot off the dribble but Jean-Phillip is very excited to coach him in the junior ranks and to help him to achieve his goal of becoming a professional.” Bridgewater, 18, recently had an opportunity to compete against
JONES LOOKS FORWARD TO STAR-STUDDED EUROLEAGUE ROSTER THIS OFFSEASON DESPITE a disappointing conclusion to the WNBA season, Jonquel Jones has a star-studded Euroleague roster to look forward to this offseason. Jones will join defending Euroleague Champions UMMC Ekaterinburg of the Russian premier League and FIBA Europe’s Euroleague during the WNBA offseason. Back in the WNBA the Sun have also reportedly exercised 4th year team options on Jones, Courtney Williams, Rachel Banham, Morgan Tuck and Bria Holmes. With those options exercised, the Sun will have 11 players under contract through at least the 2019 season. Last offseason in China, Jones became one of the Women’s Chinese Basketball Association’s most dominant players and led her Shanxi Xing Rui Flames to a runner-up finish in the final. The star forward averaged a team-high 29.3 points, 18.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists over 31 games for Shanxi Xing Rui. In the 2016 offseason, Jones was selected No. 5 overall by Woori Bank in the Korean Basketball League and led the team to a championship title. On the season she averaged 15.8 points, 14.3 rebounds and 2.8 blocks - all team leads - in 24 minutes per game for Woori Bank in 38 games. At the league’s award ceremony, Jones earned the Foreign Most Valuable Player Award, Defensive Player of the Year award and was named “Best Five” in the league. She finished the year averaging 15.5 points and 11.9 rebounds per game - a dramatic increase from her rookie season when she averaged 6.8 points and 3.7 rebounds a game.
Bridgewater named tournament MVP JUNIOR national team standout Dominick Bridgewater is making his transition toward professional basketball and dominated his experience on the court in France. Bridgewater was named the MVP of last weekend’s preseason tournament of Avant Garde Tain Tournon Basketball Club in Tain, France. He averaged 18 points and 11 assists per game for the Fos-Sue-Mur Provence Basketball Byers Epoirs team and will spend much of the regular season working against the Byers A-League team, which includes Jaraun “Kino” Burrows. The Epoirs team also competes in the league consisting of all of the junior divisions of each team in the LNB French Pro A League. Burrows will continue his career in the LNB French Pro A League for the upcoming season after he reached an agreement on a contract extension with the Byers earlier this summer. He said that in a short timespan, Bridgewater has already made an impression on the coaching staff in France. “Coach Jean-Phillip has told me he’s very excited to have Dominick and that he’ll play him at the one and some two,” Burrows said. “Even though it has been a short time he sees Dominick as a quick and explosive player with great
US OPEN, Page 5
Gabriel Sastre Jr takes his water polo game to Argentina By RENALDO DORSETT Tribune Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas Mantas Water Polo Club continues to create new milestone opportunities for its student-athletes as their international network expands. Gabriel Sastre Jr was the latest club member to take his game to the international level when he was invited to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to join the GEBA Water Polo Club for an upcoming tournament. GEBA Water Polo Club will compete in a national tournament hosted in Sante Fe, Argentina, September 14-16. Sastre earned the opportunity following a busy summer session, highlighted by an historic appearance
at the USA Water Polo National Junior Olympics. In a joint effort with the Houston Storms Water Polo Club, Sastre was one of six members of the Mantas to form a select team - BahTex ManStorm - that finished 24th out of 48 teams in the Under-16 Classic division at the event in San Jose, California. One member of the Houston Storms will accompany Sastre and will also join GEBA Water Polo Club in this month’s event. The USA Water Polo Junior Olympic Championships is the largest age group water polo tournament in America with over 400 teams competing over the course of the four-day event. The Bahamian players first joined the Storms at the Southwest Zone Junior
GABRIEL Sastre Jr sightseeing in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Olympics Qualifier tournament in Houston, Texas, last month where they finished fourth out of 10 teams. Bahamas water polo began its string of successes at the 33rd CARIFTA Aquatics Championships in Kingston, Jamaica with a trio of gold medals. In July, the Under-16 Water Polo team concluded tournament play with a silver medal and secured Youth Pan Am Games qualification in El Salvador at the CCCAN Championships. With the recent success of the Bahamas Manta Water Polo Club, head coach of the programme Laszlo Borbely said for the sport to continue its upward trend, corporate funding will be essential to its growth. “We are establishing water polo life and this
programme has grown a tremendous amount over the years. “We are achieving great success, the players are getting new opportunities and exposure, we are creating new relationships with countries and other programmes all over the world but to keep achieving we need the programme to expand and that, of course, will require greater funding,” he said to the Tribune prior to the Junior Olympics. “I would like for more of corporate Bahamas to really come on board, to see the vision and see the marketability. As these teams continue to qualify and travel to more and more events of higher stature it will take funding to do so and to have them prepared to continue this success.”