EASY DEUCE - Bahamas Academy Stars guard Terrance Brown goes up for an uncontested lay-up during their BAISS senior boys basketball game against the St. Augustine's College Big Red Machine yesterday. The Stars won the game 88-80.
SPORTS PHOTO BY DONALD KNOWLES.
By SHELDON LONGLEY
NG Sports Reporter
When the Bahamas Academy Stars acquired speedy guard Terrance Brown from C.V. Bethel in the offseason, they expected to get someone who could help take some of the scoring load off star guard Portland Bain and give them huge clutch baskets down the stretch.
Brown came through yesterday as he scored six of his game high 28 points in the final minute of the game and Reginald Knowles came off the bench to score 21 as the Stars held off the St. Augustine's College Big Red Machine 88-80 in Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools senior boys basketball action.
After watching the Machine (7-3) trim their double-digit lead to one point in the closing minutes, led by Brown the Stars (6-0) closed the game on an 8-1 scoring run to finish the first half of the season undefeated for the second consecutive year and continue an impressive home-winning streak which stretches back two years.
"Basketball is played in four quarters and all good teams will make runs but at the end of the day it is the team that has the most points that is going to win," said Stars head coach Winston Symonette. "We are cognizant of the fact the SAC has a strong winning tradition and so we just wanted to show our faces down the stretch and we did that."
The Stars led for the entire game, by as many as 15 points at one point, but the Machine haven't been blown out all season and with that in mind and with their pride at stake, they kept chipping away at the Stars lead which eventually got down to one point with 1:15 left in the game.
"We had a couple of players who played the majority of the minutes and after a while fatigue will set in. We just wanted to be patient throughout the game," said Stars coach Symonette.
Ricardo Cleare scored nine of his 17 points in the fourth quarter to spark the Machine's rally, but Brown's heroics and two clutch free throws from Turan Miller spelt doom for the Machine.
"We came back into the game and we had an opportunity to win. We had a few key guys from BA in foul trouble and once you have those things on your side, you need to play basic basketball," said SAC's head coach Reggie Forbes.
Bain contributed 20 points for the Stars yesterday including eight in the all-important fourth quarter as the Stars big three accounted for 69 of their 88 points.
Jethro Forbes paced the Machine with 20 points including a short jumper off the glass with 1:15 left which pulled the Machine within one. Ricardo's twin brother Rico scored 13 points while Leslie Gaitor and Le'voi Marshall contributed nine and eight respectively before both fouled out in the fourth quarter.
The Stars starting backcourt of Brown and Bain - which has proven to be the best backcourt in BAISS hoops this season - thrived in the open court yesterday and were able to break down SAC's half-court defence at times but it was the insertion of versatile forward Knowles in the second quarter which proved to have the greatest impact on the game.
The Stars had already built a six-point lead after the first period (18-12) without Knowles, but with him in the second and third periods they opened as much as a 15-point lead. Knowles had four spectacular dunks in the game including a one-hander over the top of SAC's reserve forward Stuart Bowe to give the Stars a 37-23 lead with one minute left in the second period. Knowles scored 16 of his 21 points in the second and third quarters combined.
"Reggie can easily start on any team in the country. He has been playing for me for the past three years and I have always made him the sixth man," said Stars coach Symonette. "Any time I bring Reggie off the bench, I know that I have a better team on the floor because I know the kind of skills he has offensively and defensively," added Symonette.
After the Machine cut into the Stars lead midway through the third period, Knowles and Brown slammed down back-to-back break away dunks to stretch the lead back to double digits (55-43).
"Our transition game could have been better but I think we got more points than we gave up and I'm happy with that," said Stars coach Symonette. "On a number of those out of bounds plays there was miscommunication and plays were not run as effectively as they could have been ran. Over the holidays we are going to make some steps to try to correct those because we are looking forward to an exciting second half," he added.
The resilient Machine kept coming back as they closed the third quarter on a mini 9-4 scoring run to cut the lead to 59-52 at the end of three. The Machine kept charging in the fourth and they got within three points on three occasions before Forbes finally pulled them within one point on his short jumper in the lane with 1:15 left.
On the ensuing play, the Stars found Brown streaking down the court and he out-ran the SAC defender to give the Stars a three-point cushion. The Machine turned the ball over on an inbounds violation and Knowles grabbed an offensive rebound but was fouled hard by SAC's centre Gaitor.
Gaitor fouled out with that foul and Knowles was banged up too bad to attempt his free throws. Turan Miller replaced him in the line-up and calmly sunk both free shots to give the Stars a 84-79 lead 32 seconds remaining. Brown scored the final four points for the Stars including a roof raising jam to cement the victory.
"We were miscommunicating on our press and in man-to-man situations and as a result of that BA went downcourt several times for uncontested lay-ups," said SAC's coach Forbes. "We could look back at that and say okay we are a bunch of rookies and we got involved in the emotions of the game. We weren't concentrating at that time of the game and as a result of that we got beat a lot of times downcourt," he added.
For the most part, the Stars 'killed' the Machine in the transition game as their wing men received numerous outlet passes creating mis-matches and fast break opportunities.
"SAC wasn't protecting the break and we flourished on the break all day. Mitch (Portland Bain) was dishing out to the man on the break and we just capitalized with points on the other end," said Stars point guard Brown. "In the closing minutes, we thought that we already had the game won and our heads weren't in the game. When we realized that they were catching up we got our heads back in the game and we came out with the victory," he added.
The Stars bench also played a huge factor as they stepped in and contributed when the Stars starting big men David Fox and Rithmond McKinney picked up three fouls each in the first half. They were able to keep the Machine at bay in the second half as Fox and McKinney played sparingly.
The Machine got back into the game in the fourth quarter by means of a swarming full court defence and a few short jumpers in the half court game. Ricardo Cleare alone had at least five steals in the second half and scored some transition baskets of his own. SAC remain in fourth place in the standings with a 7-3 win/loss record and have a good chance of staying there in the second half of the season as all of the top teams are now behind them.
The Stars closed out the first half of the season undefeated for the second consecutive year but their real test will be to see if they can win a championship when the post-season rolls around. The Stars won the senior boys pennant for the second time in school's history last year but they haven't advanced to the BAISS senior boys championship since 1995 and are yet to win the title.
"It feels great to finish the first half undefeated but we are looking at going the whole season undefeated and winning a championship," said Stars point guard Brown.
