SPORTS SECTION E
Thursday, April 30, 2026
JAZZ CHISHOLM JR- E3
Raptors, T-Wolves advance after sudden death By JONATHAN BURROWS Tribune Sports Reporter jburrows@ tribunemedia.net Junior Girls CH Reeves Junior High edged DW Davis 11-10 in a tightly contested GSSSA junior girls softball sudden-death playoff yesterday evening at the Blue Hill Sporting Complex, punching their ticket to Friday’s championship game. Head coach and GSSSA president Varel Davis said the matchup unfolded exactly as expected between two familiar opponents fighting to stay alive. “It’s the same team we played yesterday to get here. We end up in second, they end up in third, and this is playoff softball, everybody is yours,” said Davis. CH Reeves came out with intent and executed well early, but DW Davis
responded with a strong push, taking advantage of defensive lapses to keep the game within one run down the stretch. The game turned into a backand-forth battle, with both teams trading runs and momentum. Davis pointed to pitching and work behind the plate as decisive factors in holding off the late surge. “The key is pitching and the catching behind the plate,” he said. “Once your pitcher is on, you’re going to have a good game.” Despite the win, Davis was candid about areas that nearly cost his team. “Our bats came around pretty good, but a bunch of little errors really cost us in a close game,” he said. “We have to capitalise on that going into the championship on Friday.” In her dual role as GSSSA president, Davis also addressed the broader state of girls softball in
The Bahamas, noting progress but stressing the need for stronger foundational development. “Being in the system 18 years and coaching softball, I think the level of play could be a little better,” she said. “Over the years, the kids are different now. If they don’t come from primary school with the basic skills, it’s going to be hard.” She added that many players are introduced to the sport at the secondary level, placing greater responsibility on coaches to build fundamentals from the ground up. “A lot of these kids we’re seeing start from scratch, so we have to really teach and develop our softball players,” Davis said. “I think this year was pretty good, but we still have a long way to go for girls’ softball in the country.” Davis emphasised that increased opportunities for competition are essential to
growth. “The key is teaching, fundamentally and mentally,” she said. “But they need more games for girls, more leagues for girls. By doing that, we’ll see improvement, especially at the high school level.” With the championship set for Friday, CH Reeves will turn its attention to tightening execution in practice in anticipation of a strong HO Nash team. “Practice tomorrow, of course,” Davis said. “We’ll go back and work on those errors that we did today and get more bunting in. Once we capitalise and put the bat on the ball, it can be very good for us.” After surviving a one-run thriller, CH Reeves now stands one win away from the title, with Davis confident her team can clean up the details and finish the job. Junior Boys Anatol Rodgers Junior High delivered a composed
performance to defeat DW Davis 3-1 in their GSSSA junior boys’ sudden-death baseball playoff matchup yesterday, also at the Blue Hill Sporting Complex, advancing to Friday’s championship. Head coach Alfonso Brown said the result was a direct response to preseason doubts about his team’s size and presence. “It was pretty good,” Brown said. “Before the season started, a lot of teams counted us out. They said we look too small, we don’t look intimidating. But my boys locked in all offseason, and they came out and they played.” Anatol Rodgers established control early and relied on disciplined, fundamental play to manage the game. The lone defensive mistake did not derail their approach. “We made one error that I didn’t like, and they got a
run off that,” Brown said. “But I was confident in their reaction. They calmed themselves down, handled business, and after that we just played fundamental baseball.” Brown pointed to his battery as the difference, highlighting strong execution from both the mound and behind the plate. “I feel like we got the best pitcher (Kendrick Mada) in the division and the best catcher (John Denmark) in the division,” he said. With the win, Anatol Rodgers now turns its attention to a championship showdown against HO Nash on Friday, a rematch that carries added motivation after last year’s playoff exit. “We’ve been waiting on this for a year,” Brown said. “They took us out in the playoffs last year, and we had that feeling all year. We’ve been praying for this. Now we get it, we ready.”
‘VJ’ and 76ers look to tie series tonight By MAURA CAREY AP Sports Writer THE New York Knicks and Boston Celtics aim to advance to the second round of the NBA playoffs with road victories while the Denver Nuggets look to force a Game 7 against the injured Minnesota Timberwolves tonight. Back-to-back losses have the Atlanta Hawks looking into their arsenal of defensive schemes and bench rotations as they search for an answer to defending a high-powered Knicks offence. Karl-Anthony
Knicks and Celtics chasing road clinchers as Nuggets fight to force Game 7 Towns posted a triple-double on Saturday night as Atlanta sealed off Jalen
BIG GAME: Philadelphia 76ers guard Valdez “VJ” Edgecombe (77) in action during Game 5 of a first-round NBA playoffs basketball series on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Brunson. The roles were reversed on Tuesday night
when a freed-up Brunson scored 39 points.
“Everyone's going to make adjustments," Towns said. “So just being prepared for whatever the defence throws at us and being able to react accordingly.” Defensively, the Knicks have found a solution for CJ McCollum, who stole Games 2 and 3 with clutch offensive performances. The Hawks' top scorers, Jalen Johnson and Nickeil Alexander-Walker, have struggled to replicate their regular-season success. “Their defence never really let us establish consistently how we need to play to beat them,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said after Tuesday's 126-97 loss. “We need to execute on who we are and what we've done to be a good team, and like I said, that's hard against a team of their calibre.” Meanwhile in Boston, 76ers' centre Joel Embiid proved he'd been what the team was missing in just his second game back after an appendectomy. The former league MVP paced Philadelphia with 33 points and led the team to a 113-97 road win. “He (Embiid) was dominant, especially in the second half,” Tyrese Maxey said after the game. “He did a really good job of just inserting himself, and you know, I was proud of him tonight, man.”
The Sixers, with newfound momentum, will try to tie the series at home while the Celtics hope to punch their ticket to the Eastern Conference semifinals. “It’ll take everything we’ve got,” Maxey said Tuesday. “It’ll take even more of an effort than it did tonight.” The Timberwolves might not have lost their confidence or swagger with the injuries to star Anthony Edwards and sparkplug Donte DiVincenzo, but their discipline and focus sure disappeared in the Game 5 defeat in Denver where they fell behind by as many as 27 points in the fourth quarter, with 25 turnovers the most glaring problem. Though Edwards and DiVincenzo are their two best 3-point shooters and offensive creators, a revival of the smothering defence that fuelled the rally in Game 2 and blowout wins in Games 3 and 4 will be the biggest key to the Timberwolves taking the series. “There’s no doubt that we miss Donte and Ant and all the things they do offensively and defensively, but we played a large part of Game 4 without those guys, so we still have really good defenders elsewhere,” coach Chris Finch said. “I didn’t like our attack mindset the other day. I thought we kind of waited on our heels a little bit too much. We’ve just got to be better getting back to what we know will work for us better.”