Home|Sports|Warriors, Marlins stay alive at Hugh CampbellSports
Pool play heating up in double-elimination tournament
Simba FrenchSend an emailFebruary 24, 2023 416 2 minute readFacebookTwitterLinkedInShare via Email
After three days of competition at the 2023 Hugh Campbell Basketball Tournament, teams are starting to be eliminated in the double-elimination tournament as pool play heats up at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs National Gymnasium.
The Louise McDonald Marlins, out of Bimini, sent the S.C Bootle Dolphins back to Abaco with a 59-43 victory on Thursday. Grand Bahama’s Bishop Michael Eldon Warriors edged the Akhepran Academy Scarabs, 43-37, to eliminate them from the tournament.
Action continues today and more teams will be eliminated. Tip-off is at noon.
Marlins 59, Dolphins 43
A third quarter turnaround by the Marlins was the difference in the game. They took advantage of the Dolphins 15-6 in that quarter and never looked back. They led 43-31 after three. The Marlins held their first double-digit lead at the 3:15 mark of the third quarter.
Jasmen Rock and Javardo Toote were huge for the Marlins in the victory. Rock had a game-high 23 points as he willed his team to stay in the tournament. Toote had 19 points and a game-high 19 rebounds.
The game was a very tightly contested one early on as the teams traded leads. It was tied 13-13 at the end of the first quarter. The Dolphins were up 25-24 with less than one minute left in the first half but the Marlins were able to end the quarter on a 4-0 scoring run to go into the intermission up, 28-25.
The Dolphins were led by Miguel Sawyer who had a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Warriors 43, Scarabs 37
It was a close game with 24.7 seconds left as the Warriors were only up by four, 41-37, and the Scarabs were at the free throw line. The player from the Scarabs missed both shots and the Warriors were able to hold on.
For Theron Smith, the head coach of the Warriors, execution down the stretch was a key component. He said they had to let the team know how important this game was.
“We wanted to mentally prepare the guys and we told them that this is an elimination game. Everything that we put together this year we wanted to bring it and put it together in this game. We wanted to play fast, aggressive and under control,” Smith said.
Lavon Cooper and Javon Basden both had 10 points in the victory.
The Warriors jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead at the start of the game. They did the same thing on Wednesday against the Gateway Christian Academy Eagles but it did not end well.
This time, they pulled away and went up 25-10 heading into the half as they look to avoid a repeat of their loss to the Eagles.
However, the Scarabs found a way to make the game interesting as the Warriors could not handle the defense that was thrown at them. Smith’s side was outscored 16-8 in the third period, and led 33-26 after three.
Coming out of that third quarter, Smith said that he told his players that their destiny was in their hands. They chose to live another day, he said.
“We had a big lead going into the half and they started to press us and we got out of sorts a little. At the end of the game coming down the stretch we figured it out,” Smith said.
Evan Hanna did all that he could to help his Scarabs with a game-high 18 points but it was not enoug