Bahamas Beats Nicaragua, Finishes 7th

Coming off a heart breaking loss to Mexico the day before, The Bahamas Men’s National team finished the CentroBasket tournament in 7th place defeating Nicaragua 120 – 77 in their tournament finale.

Despite being shorthanded for the game, eight of the nine dressed players  scored in double figures with JR Cadot leading the way with 18 points.

From the start of the game the Bahamas was the dominant team taking an 11 point first quarter lead. In the second quarter, the Bahamas completely took Nicaragua out the game allowing just six points while they capped off a tournament high 64 point half.

Cadot’s 18 points were his tournament high.

“We just wanted to have some fun, go out and enjoy it. We  wanted to build some momentum going forward for what is to come for this team,” he said, “We just wanted to come out and play hard. We knew we were way more physical and quicker than so we wanted to put some pressure on them, because we feel they couldn’t handle it and create turnovers. We were able to do that and it led to us having a big lead.”

Travis Munnings also scored a tournament high 16 points.

“Even thought this was the last game we just had to come out with the right mindset. I just tried to be more aggressive, my teammates found me at the right time and I was getting good looks. I just want to bring energy and be all over the floor,” he said.

Team Bahamas head coach  Mario Bowleg said the best is still yet to come for the growth of the programme.

“We wanted to finish the tournament strong and that’s what we did. Yet again, we have yet to put our best team on the floor. This one of our better teams that we’ve been able to put on the floor as far as the young guys are concerned so it speaks volumes about the young guys coming up and even after this tournament we may have 4-6 of these guys retire because the younger players are coming up. Buddy Hield just got drafted so the future is bright for the Bahamas,” he said, “It’s just a matter of killing that black crab syndrome out of the team. Having a team of guys who want to represent their country, don’t quit no matter what or find excuses when it gets tough. That’s what we want to build that type of culture that will allow the national team to grow.”

 

Comments