SAC junior girls beat Kingsway
By SHELDON LONGLEY
NG Sports Reporter
To prove that their only loss of the year was a fluke, the Bahamas Academy Stars senior girls eliminated the defending Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools champions, the Temple Christian Suns, yesterday at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs National Gymnasium.
In just their second year in a girls basketball programme, the Stars almost blew a double digit lead yesterday but held on for a 26-21 victory to avenge their only loss of the year, a one-point controversial setback to the Suns.
After not making the playoffs last year, the Stars advanced to the championship yesterday, where they will play either last year's runners-up, the St. Augustine's College Big Red Machine or the upstart Queen's College Comets. The Stars beat both of those teams comfortably in the regular season.
"We have to give credit to Temple Christian. Sherelle (Suns' head coach Sherelle Cash) did an excellent job with them and by next year they will be a formidable team," said Stars head coach Winston Symonette, who also coaches their senior boys.
"It will be interesting tomorrow to see which of the other two teams advance. Both of those teams are well coached and they play with a lot of tenacity and speed. I don't have a preference and we will like to have which team deserves to be here," he added.
It seemed like the pennant-winning Stars would breeze to an easy win as they opened a sizable first quarter lead, but the resilient defending champions quickly got back in the game and even took the lead at the end of the first half.
"I am very happy with the performance my girls gave me because most of them are young in the game," said Suns head coach Cash. "We just have to go back to the drawing board and work harder and everyone better be ready for Temple Christian next season," she warned.
Suns guard Tadashia Curry played a pivotal role in getting her team back in the game as she scored five points in the second quarter, including a three pointer to tie the game at 16 right before the half. The Suns added a free throw and led 17-16 at the half.
As the third quarter commenced, a defensive battle ensued as both teams had difficulty scoring and exhibiting any kind of team chemistry. Four points combined was scored in the period, two by both sides.
"You have to balance a game with offence and defence and sometimes you have to sit key offensive players because of foul trouble," said Symonette. "We were able to do that and still we were able to persevere. One of my philosophies is not to win the game in the second or third quarters but to win it in the fourth and that is what we tried to do today," he added.
The defensive struggle continued at the start of the final period, but the Stars surged ahead for good on a steal and lay-up from top scorer Staneka Delancey, who scored seven of her team's final eight points.
"It was a lot of pressure on me but we wanted to go to the championship. (I wasn't scared) because I knew that God was with me and that he was my captain and that we were going to win this game anyway," said Delancey.
Delancey finished with a game high 17 points, 10 in the first and the final seven at the end of the game. She scored the game's final points on another lay-up with 40.2 seconds left to give the Stars a 26-21 lead, sealing the victory.
"She (Delancey) is a terrific talent and we enjoy having her. We expect to see more terrific things from her in time to come," said Stars coach Symonette.
Delancey's teammate Imari Bethel was the next highest scorer with four points for the Stars. Curry paced the Suns with a side high 13 points.
"Inexperience was definitely a problem, and it just wasn't our time this year. It was a learning process for them and we will be better next year," said Suns coach Sherelle Cash. "It is a little disappointing because they wanted to move on to the next level. They won the first one but I told them that the first one don't count because that was a regular season game. This is the one which counted."
Junior Girls
SAC 25, Kingsway 23
The St. Augustine's College Big Red Machine junior girls advanced to the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools championship for the second year in a row with a narrow 25-23 victory over the Kingsway Academy Saints yesterday.
Lashan Martin paced the Machine with 12 points followed by Donea Bethel with six. Jelisa Anderson matched game high honours with Martin with 12 points for the Saints, while her teammate Robyn Swaby added six.
