SPORTS SECTION E
Junior Tennis
Nationals, Page 2
FRIDAY, JULY 15, 2016
Bahamas rout T&T to top pool play in CBC U-16 By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net AFTER a day’s rest, the Bahamas girls basketball team came back and routed Trinidad & Tobago by 53 points to win their pool play in the Caribbean Basketball Confederation’s Under-16 Girls Basketball Championship Tournament. In their 89-36 rout, Valencia Demeritte posted another game high 26 points, Brionte Riley had 16, Tanae Bowleg 13 and Kendise Smith added 10 in a balanced scoring attack as the Bahamas improved to 2-0. The win came after the Bahamas opened play on Tuesday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in Georgetown, Guyana when they held off Suriname 59-54. Head coach Varel Davis said the team played exceptionally well. “The team’s performance was excellent tonight. We capitalised on their mistakes and our defence was a lot better from our first game,” said Davis, who is assisted by Charlene ‘Swish’ Smith and Anastacia Moultrie. “We also made a lot of lay-ups. The last game we missed a few and
TEAM BAHAMAS to the Caribbean Basketball Confederation’s Under-16 Girls Basketball Championship Tournament. we cut down on the turnovers, so the win was very good tonight. We are now preparing for the crossover tomorrow (today).” After securing another victory to wrap up pool B, Davis said she wasn’t surprised at the performance. “I know these girls, once they come to play, no team in this tournament can play with us,” she said. “I know when we cross over, we have a very good chance of making
it to the gold medal round because we have one of the best teams in this tournament.” Up to press time, the Bahamas was still waiting to find out who their opponent will be today from pool A, which includes Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Antigua & Barbuda and Guyana. But Davis said it doesn’t matter. They are on a mission in Guyana. “Most likely we will be playing the feature game tomorrow night,
so we will be ready to play,” Davis said. “The girls are really excited about the way they have played so far, so we are hoping to continue to play as well as we’ve done so far.” The Bahamas will need to win today’s game in order to clinch a berth in Saturday night’s championship game, but Davis is confident that they can get the job done. “Our goal right now is to get to the gold medal game. If these girls continue to do what we are doing right now, we should be able to get there,” Davis said. “But I’m very proud of the way they are plying right now. We just have to wait to see how tomorrow (today) goes.” The girls are hoping to join the boys’ team that won their version of the tournament last week with a 84-57 win over host Guyana as Domnick Bridgewater was named the most valuable player after scoring a game high 34 points with eight steals. The boys’ team, coached by Quinton ‘Three-Ounch’ Hall, along with Guyana and third place finishers Jamaica, qualified for the Under-17 CentroBasket Championships. The girls’ team is hoping to qualify as well after Saturday’s finale.
Davis Cup win streak continues By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net
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eam captain Marvin Rolle inserted Kevin ‘KJ’ Major Jr into the rotation and the Bahamas continued its winning streak, completing pool B round robin play with a 3-0 sweep over Trinidad & Tobago. Now the Bahamas is one match away from returning to the American Zone II for 2017. Major Jr, who supported his teammates from the sidelines in their first two victories over Honduras and Costa Rica in Zone III at the National Tennis Club in La Paz, Bolivia, finally got in action as they began play yesterday. In his opening singles match, Major Jr pulled off a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 win over Luke de Caires. Spencer Newman followed with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Akiel Duke and then Rolle and Spencer Newman sealed the deal with their 6-2, 6-3 win over Richard Chung and Luke De Caires. Rolle said they decided to give Baker Newman a break after he played a number of matches over the past two ties and Major Jr fitted in very well. “It was a good performance by everybody,” said Rolle in an interview from Bolivia. “KJ won in three sets. He came up big in the third set. And Spencer played well in his match and me and Spencer played the doubles and we were able to close it out in straight sets. “Overall, it was a great match. We have a day off tomorrow (today) and will come back and play Jamaica on Saturday. So hopefully we can pull off the win and get up to zone II.” Major, 21, needed just one hour and 39 minutes to dispose of De
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WINNING WAYS: Bahamas’ Davis Cup team of brothers Baker and Spencer Newman, Marvin Rolle (second from right) and Kevin ‘KJ’ Major (far right) proudly hold the Bahamas flag in Bolivia.
BOC NOT YET READY TO RELEASE NAMES ON OLYMPIC TEAM By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net SECRETARY General Romel ‘Fish’ Knowles said the Bahamas Olympic Committee is not quite yet ready to release the names of Team Bahamas going to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, next month. While the deadline for athletes to quality was Sunday (July 11), Knowles said there are still a few more logistics that they have to deal with before they announce the team either Monday or Tuesday. “The president (Wellington Miller) is away and he won’t be back until tomorrow (today),” Knowles said. “So we are just waiting on him to return so that we can finalise the list. “But we are also waiting to see what happens with the Russian Olympic Committee, who is waiting on a court hearing. That will determine whether or not we will carry our women’s 4 x 400m relay team, which will increase the number of persons on the team.” Knowles, however, said the BOC has decided to ratify all of the athletes who would have done the qualifying standard, including former co-national women’s 100m hurdle record holders Adanaca Brown and Devynne Charlton, who are both nursing injuries. While Brown has not competed so far this year, Charlton ran indoors for Purdue University before she suffered a back injury that has forced her to shut down her outdoor season. Additionally, Knowles said the BOC is waiting on a progress report from Latario Collie, who won the NCAA outdoor men’s triple jump on his first jump. Collie was forced to watch the remainder of the competition after he suffered a slight injury that hampered him from competing at the Bahamas Association of Athletic Associations’ National Open Track and Field Championships. The BAAA held the Nationals in June at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium, which served as a final trial for the Olympics. However, the IAAF has extended the deadline for athletes to qualify to Monday, July 11, following the completion of the USA and European trials that weekend. There were a few athletes whose names were submit-
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Buddy Hield earns ESPY Award for Best Male College Athlete By RENALDO DORSETT Sports Reporter rdorsett@tribunemedia.net AS he gets set to begin his professional career in earnest, Buddy Hield continues to reap rewards for his record-breaking collegiate season. The former Oklahoma Sooners and current New Orleans Pelicans guard won the ESPY Award for “Best Male College Athlete” last night in the show hosted at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, California. Hield beat out four other nominees in the category, including Derrick Henry of Alabama (football), Jarrion Lawson of Arkansas (track and field), Jordan Morris of Stanford (soccer) and Alex Dieringer of Oklahoma State (wrestling). Hield’s star-studded senior season for the Sooners concluded
with a litany of awards, including the John R Wooden, Naismith and Oscar Robertson Player of the Year trophies. He was also named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches first-team, a first-team All-American by the United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA), Sports Illustrated and USA Today. His list of honours also included the Sporting News Player of the Year, USBWA District VI Player of the Year, CBS Sports Player of the Year, Big 12 Player of the Year and the All-Big 12 first-team. Hield could have left Oklahoma after his junior season as a potential first-round pick, but he returned to school for his senior season. It turned out to be a wise decision, as he had a career year, averaging 25.0 points, 5.7 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game while shooting 50.1 per cent over-
BUDDY HIELD all and 45.7 per cent from threepoint range. He went on to be selected No.6 overall to the New Orleans Pelicans in this year’s NBA Draft. Hield was unable to attend the show, hosted by WWE superstar John Cena, due to his participation in the Samsung NBA Sum-
mer League in Las Vegas, Nevada. His New Orleans Pelicans will play their final game in the tournament today. Through four Summer League games, Hield has averaged 18.3 points per game, but also shot just 34 per cent from the field and 24 per cent from three-point range. “I’m not worried about it. I’ll use the Summer League as motivation to keep myself humble and show you’re not good enough yet to play in this league,” Hield said following the Pelicans’ first round tournament loss to the Miami Heat. “I just got to keep working and I’ve been working so hard and I probably won’t take any time off because I’ve got to catch up.” This was the second time the Bahamas has been associated with winning a possible ESPY award. The improbable finish of the in-
augural Popeyes Bahamas Bowl in which Central Michigan scored a 75-yard, three-lateral touchdown as time expired has advanced to the Finals for the 2015 ESPY Best Play award. CMU’s touchdown, the No. 2 seed in the 16-play bracket, received 60 per cent of the online vote to defeat No. 7 seed Tyler Ennis of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres in the Round of 8 to move on to the final fan vote. New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr won the ESPY Award for play of the year for his catch against the Dallas Cowboys. The ESPYs were created by ESPN as an accolade to recognise individual and team athletic achievement and other sportsrelated performance during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony. The first ESPYs were awarded in 1993.