Home|Sports|Four champions crowned in the BAISSSports
Simba FrenchSend an emailFebruary 9, 2023 118 3 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email
The brooms were out at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs National Gymnasium Wednesday night as all four teams that had the upper hand got a sweep in the championships of the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS).
The C.W. Saunders Cougars won the ‘Battle of the Baptist Schools’ competition when they won a close 54-50 game against Jordan Prince William to carry the senior boys basketball trophy to Jean Street. After a one-point victory in Game One, the Kingsway Academy Saints easily took care of the St. Augustine’s College (SAC) Big Red Machine, 25-12, to repeat as the champions in the junior girls division.
In the junior boys division, the Jordan Prince William Falcons overpowered SAC, 49-41, to win that best-of-three series 2-0. After seeing their junior boys and girls teams fall, SAC senior girls put on a dominant performance to get a 53-21 victory over the St. John’s College Giants to sweep that series two games to none.
Junior Girls
Saints 25, SAC 12
The Most Valuable Player (MVP) in the junior girls division Andica Curtis was strong for the second straight game for the Saints, scoring seven points, but it was her teammate Dashante Sears who came up with a game-high eight points to lead the Saints to the championship.
Head Coach Tamaro Butler said the game plan coming into this one was to play defense.
“The last game they had a lot of fastbreak points so coming into this game we had to limit their fastbreak points and force them to play half court basketball,” Butler said.
Curtis, who is in grade seven and has two more years at the junior level, was happy to win the title.
“From we saw the competition that we had, we assumed that we were going to win. We were not thinking about a game three,” Curtis said.
Zion Carey led SAC with six points.
Junior Boys
Falcons 49, SAC 41
The junior boys game was all Falcons before SAC cut into the lead with 3:50 left in the game. SAC got close to Prince William, trailing 33-32 at that point, but they couldn’t surge ahead. The Falcons turned up their defense and turned SAC’s turnovers into points to seal the game and complete the sweep.
Micheal Munnings was clutch in the final quarter for the Falcons, putting in nine of his 24 points in that stanza, to lead them to victory. He had 10 points in the first quarter. Broc Glinton chipped in with 12 points for the Falcons.
“We worked all season to get this so we deserve this. We just had to relax and let the game come to us,” Glinton said.
Nathan Rolle led SAC with 20 points.
Senior Girls
SAC 53, Giants 21
The scoreline shows a dominant performance by SAC but early in the second quarter, the Giants held a slim 10-9 lead. That was the wake-up call that SAC needed. SAC went on to lead 22-14 at the half.
SAC dominated the second half, 31-7.
Head Coach for SAC Anastasia Sands-Moultrie said she told the girls to pick up the pace.
“I told the girls about the slow start and that they have to pick it up. They did not have any energy in the early going but they put out more energy and went from there,” Sands-Moultrie said.
Moultrie’s daughter, Antonicia Moultrie, was tough to guard. She finished with a game-high 17 points. Her teammate Dior-Rae Scott finished with 16 points.
Coach Sands-Moultrie said they had to bring one home for SAC.
“My team did well,” Sands-Moultrie said. “I knew we were going to win the game, not being cocky but we knew what we had and what we came out here to do,” she said.
Reyannah Green scored 15 points to lead the Giants.
Senior Boys
Cougars 54, Falcons 50
C.W. Saunders Cougars’ big man Nakero Brown-Cox rocked DeAndre Ayton’s purple Puma shoes and was a menace on the defensive side. Ayton is the starting center for the Phoenix Suns in the National Basketball Association (NBA). As for Brown-Cox, he was swatting away shots after shots and he scored 10 point to help his team record the win and sweep the Falcons.
“It feels great to win the championship,” The grade 11 student said. “I just go up and block shots and time it properly,” he added about his defensive prowess.
This game had no double-digit lead and was very competitive right down to the final whistle.
The Cougars got out of the third quarter with a 41-38 lead, but the Falcons battled back to tie the game at 44 points apiece. That came with 5:08 left in the game. The Cougars went on a 6-0 scoring run to go up 50-44 with 3:49 left. The Falcons did not back down as they went on their own 6-0 run to tie it at the 1:54 mark of the fourth quarter.
The Falcons had their chances but could not score in the final two minutes Brown-Cox’s presence was felt. A 4-0 run to end the game gave the Cougars the victory.
Cougars’ Head Coach Dario Burrows said he was happy with his team’s fight to get the victory.
Ramon Woods led the Cougars with 22 points, including 10 points in the third quarter.
Kamari Minnis led the Falcons with 19 points in a losing effort.