Under the current FIBA (International Basketball Federation) rules, The Bahamas' senior women's national basketball team found out the hard way that a single loss could leave you out of the medal rounds, jeopardizing your chances of moving forward. There's no doubt in the minds of many that The Bahamas was certainly one of the top three teams in the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) Championships for Senior Women, but due to that one loss and a stringent FIBA rule regarding three-way ties for preliminary round competition, the team could only muster a fifth place finish.
Strangely enough, the same fate almost befell the Bahamian men.
Heading into the third day of their CBC Championships in Tortola, British Virgin Islands (BVI), they were even in a worse situation than the women, having lost a stunner to Antigua & Barbuda by 22 points. Had Antigua & Barbuda went on to defeat St. Vincent and the Grenadines as expected, The Bahamas would have been out of the medal rounds, falling via the quotient system regarding three-way ties in preliminary round competition in FIBA basketball.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines did The Bahamas a huge favor as they defeated Antigua & Barbuda by a single point, meaning all the country had to do was defeat Cuba to move on to the medal rounds. Had it not been for that Antigua & Barbuda loss to St. Vincent, The Bahamas would have needed to defeat Cuba by 19 points in order to advance to the semi-finals. The Bahamas won, 77-71, and rode that momentum all the way to the gold medal.
So, even though the team finished first in the five-day tournament, they very easily could have been left out of the medal picture, and play in the reclassification round for the fifth through eighth spots.
Team Bahamas Assistant Coach Mario Bowleg said after that disappointing loss to Antigua, they just focussed on what they needed to do to advance and let the chips fall where they may regarding the other teams.
"We knew that we put our backs against the wall by coming out in the second game and not playing well," said Bowleg. "St. Vincent did us a huge favor, and at that point all we had to do was beat Cuba. That just shows the toughness of that competition. On any given day, any team could have beaten any of the others. Other than ourselves and Cuba, I think that everyone else was on an even keel.
"I told the guys it was all about pride for country and pride for themselves. I told them to look at the name on the chest that says Bahamas, and the name on the back which is the name of the family that they are representing. We believed that once they would have gone out there and represented those two things, they would have played to the best of their ability and do what it took to ensure that we moved on."
The Bahamas got a huge contribution from professional player Magnum Rolle in the tournament, and they will need him to step up even more when Centrobasket rolls around. The top three teams from the CBC Championship automatically qualify for the Centrobasket Championships which will be held August 1-7, in Tepic, Nayarit, in west-central Mexico. The top four teams from Centrobasket will qualify for next year's FIBA Americas Championships where they will get an opportunity to qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
For the CBC Championships, Rolle was tied with point guard Marvin Gray for the team lead in scoring, averaging 13.8 points per game. That was good enough for ninth in the tournament. Rolle was second in the tournament in rebounds, averaging seven per game, and was in a five-way tie for third in blocks, averaging 1.2 per game.
"We look at Magnum as the leader, and he is the leader. He is active on and off the court. Everything is build around him, offensively and defensively," said Bowleg. "In the backcourt, we try to pressure the ball and keep people out of the paint, and also get a hand in the faces of these players who shoot the ball so well. The main thing is taking care of the ball, and getting Magnum going down low. Once we could do that, and knock down a few jump shots, we think that we will be alright heading into Centrobasket."
The Bahamas senior men's program is preparing to engage in another training camp, this time in Houston, Texas, on the campus of the University of Houston. It is expected that there will be some changes made to the team that will travel to Mexico for the Centrobasket Championships.
"We don't feel like we were in the best condition in BVI. The training camp was short, and conditioning was not the order of the day," said Bowleg. "The guys are going to be working on their conditioning leading up to Centrobasket. We took it for granted that most of them were playing pro basketball and would have come into the camp in some sort of shape. The depth of the bench allowed us to sustain a certain level of play and move on."
At this time, it is unknown who will make up the final 12 headed to Mexico, but going into the tournament, there is still a cloud of doubt regarding the availability of Lynden 'LJ' Rose Jr. who suffered a high ankle sprain at the CBC Championships. Rose was expected to get the nod at the starting point guard spot. In his absence in the BVI, Team Bahamas coaches went with a smaller, quicker, more aggressive line-up that used perimeter shooting and athleticism to get the better of their opponents.
After Rose went down, and Team Bahamas suffered that crushing loss to Antigua, coaches decided on a line-up that featured Gray and Alonzo 'CJ' Hinds in the backcourt, and Mitchell Johnson at the small forward spot in replace of Bennet Davis.
"We felt that we needed to start a three-guard line-up, and Mitch (Mitchell Johnson) was the best person who we had available who could play that three spot, handle the ball and shoot the ball," said Bowleg. "Bennet is not a three, so we had to make an adjustment there, but it was not so much his play which led to him being benched. When he came into the game, he gave us solid play from the four spot. Points wise he might not have done what persons would have expected, but all-in-all Bennet is a very intelligent player on the floor, and he gave us what we needed at that point in time. The team was very stacked. Other players stepped up when we needed them to. All-in-all, they played well."
Bowleg is hoping for much of the same in Mexico. The Bahamas will play out of Pool 'B' with the U.S. Virgin Islands, El Salvador, Puerto Rico and host country Mexico. The team must finish in the top two in that pool to move on to the semi-finals, and qualify for the 2015 FIBA Americas Championships.

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