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Friday, July 3, 2009

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Bahamasdrilled again in Argentina By SHELDON LONGLEY ~ NG Sports Editor ~ slongley@nasguard.com: Going into last night's game in Mendoza, Argentina, Team Bahamas was still looking for its first win ever at the FIBA Americas level, junior or senior. With that in mind and the level of competition they are up against, Bahamas Basketball Federation (BBF) President Lawrence Hepburn said that he is quite satisfied with the effort he is sure the team is putting forward. That effort can be no more evident than it was Thursday night when the team battled back from a 26-point deficit to pull within striking distance of a tough Canadian team. The team eventually fell, 88-69, to remain winless in two games at the FIBA Americas Under-16 Championships for Junior Men, but pulled within single digits in the fourth quarter before Canada executed an 11-3 run to put the game away. Consequently, The Bahamas fell out of contention for a semi-final spot, and more importantly, a qualifying spot for next year's World Championships. "Well, you can never be happy with not qualifying, but we have to remember that we are going up against some very strong programs with much larger groups of athletes than what we have here in The Bahamas. On top of that, these countries all have professional leagues and the resources to bring their athletes together in camps where they can be prepared for tournaments like these. Because of our archipelagic nature and our scarce resources, we are unable to do that to the extent of which other countries in this region could," said Hepburn. "We are going to continue to build on our program and pay close attention to these players though. We have to put in place a stronger program of development if we are going to get to that next level. We will have to find a way to get our players in basketball camps well in advance. You know, some of our players on the team were meeting each other for the first time just days before they traveled so they weren't able to develop that chemistry together. We have no doubt that we will get better though. Once we continue to build, we believe that our program will definitely get stronger." The Bahamas played Mexico in its final pool game last night, but the result was unavailable up to press time. With victories over Mexico in the past, and with the Mexican team not as strong as Argentina and Canada, Hepburn expressed optimism of Team Bahamas pulling off a victory, which would have been the country's first at this level. "I would be disappointed if we don't beat them," said Hepburn yesterday. "I think that we could have been on par with Canada, and Argentina is always strong, but we know that we could beat Mexico, and we all expressed that. These guys are all young and we don't have much depth, but I told the coaches let's just try to get the wins that we know we can get. We're anticipating that we can beat Mexico with the players that we have." The Bahamas was blasted in its first game against host country Argentina, 102-76, in the feature game on Wednesday night, and then lost the following night to Canada. Once again, Michael Carey led the way for Team Bahamas with another double-double, 21 points and 10 rebounds. Wannah Bail added 17 points and eight rebounds, and Phillip Jones, Garth Brown Jr. and Astin Lewis contributed nine points apiece. Negus Webster-Chan led Canada with a game high 23 points and eight rebounds, and Kevin Pangos and Anthony Bennett contributed 14 points and six rebounds each. "We know the reality of that level of basketball - the game is played at a very high level and right now we are not up to that standard," said Hepburn. "We would have to play our best possible game to compete with the teams at the FIBA Americas level, especially teams like Argentina and the United States. Against Canada, we were able to bounce back after the first quarter, but we had a lot of catching up to do, and from what I understand, that was difficult to do especially with Geno out. That was a big loss, but all-in-all, I'm proud of the guys. We're getting there," he added. Reserve point guard Geno Bullard Jr. injured his knee in the loss to Argentina and is inactive for the remainder of the tournament. Nevertheless, Team Bahamas has every intention of finishing strong, hoping to pick up the country's first ever win at this level. Saturday, June 20, 2009