Nationals heat up in Freeport

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The 2018 Bahamas High School National Basketball Championships continued yesterday at the St. George’s High School Gymnasium. 

 

In senior boys action, both the Saint Augustine’s College (SAC) Big Red Machine and the Prince William Falcons, were able to avenge opening round losses. SAC knocked off Eight Mile Rock 49-36, while the Falcons pulled off a close 40-36 win over Sunland Baptist Academy. 

 

Cornelius Clyde led SAC with 18 points and Ricky Moxey, Avery Nesbitt and Aaron Sands had six points each in the win. 

 

“We played a much more aggressive game today,” said SAC coach Jason Edwards.

 

“We just didn’t give up today, and hopefully we can use this as momentum going forward. We are missing Joel Johnson due to the fact that he is competing in CARIFTA, so right now we are finding a way to patch our offense to address losing our lead guard. Taking it game by game is all we can do at this point.”

 

After trading leads through the first two quarters, Clyde went on a personal 6-0 run to push SAC ahead by seven, with 3:00 to go, in third.

 

Unable to get into an offensive groove, the Blue Jays went scoreless for three minutes in the fourth and never threatened the lead in the fourth quarter. 

 

Daniel Bain led Eight Mike Rock with eight points and 10 rebounds. 

 

In the second game of the day, the Falcons used a 4-0 run in the final 20 seconds to seal the deal and advance to the next round. Mateo Taylor had 19 points in the win for the Falcons. 

 

“We played hard, and that’s something we always do no matter where we play,” said Falcons coach Ernest Saunders.

 

“We scrapped and we clawed our way through this one and we live to fight another day. That’s all I could really ask for at this point. We have a few junior players that we are trying to bring into our system next year, and so we are using this as a learning experience to ensure our players are ready to play at the next level.”

 

Quebell Martin had eight points in the win and Darius Brown and Stevejay Whylly had five each. 

 

In the other games played at St. George’s yesterday, C.C. Sweeting beat Teleos Christian Academy 63-55 and Doris Johnson beat Agape Christian 44-18. 

 

Nationals action continues tomorrow at both St. George’s and Sir. Jack Hayward Gymnasium. The senior boys play at St. George’s, while the small schools, Sr. Girls and Family Islands play at Jack Hayward. 

 

Action at both gyms begin at 10:00 a.m.

About Randy Smith

Randy Smith is the producer of the widely-watched local television show “Beyond The Headlines” and the web content manager of Eyewitness News. He joined Eyewitness News as a sportscaster in 2018, a role he still performs, and has previously covered a slew of international sporting events, including the 2015 Pan American Games, the Nike EYBL Showcase, several IAAF World Relays, the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, the Commonwealth Youth Games, the Bahamas Bowl and multiple CARIFTA Swimming and Track & Field Championships. Randy has been recognized by the Bahamas Press Club with awards for “Best Sports Broadcast” as a sportscaster and “Best TV Talk Show” as a producer.