The C.R. Walker Knights senior girls have done it again!
They made it five straight on Saturday past, and seven out of 11, as they held on for a 30-26 win over the C.V. Bethel Stingrays in the third and final game of their Government Secondary Schools Sports Association (GSSSA) championship series. The Knights turned in a strong collective performance in a wire-to-wire victory at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs National Gymnasium, on Saturday, but the Stingrays didn't go away easily. After winning game two of the series, the Stingrays came into game three confident of their chances, but just couldn't overcome a poor start. They executed a frantic 17-4 run late in the game, but time ran out on them, and the Lady Knights celebrated another GSSSA basketball title. It was the kind of birthday present that Head Coach Ken Lightbourne said that he will never forget.
"When we started this streak, I would have been happy with just one, but every one afterwards is like a must-win. It feels so good to get five," said Lightbourne on Saturday evening. "I have to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for helping us along and pulling us through. This feels so great. It's my birthday, and it's the best birthday present ever."
As mentioned, it certainly wasn't easy though. The senior girls series was the only of the four GSSSA divisions to go to the limit, and even thought they built a sizable lead in the decisive third game, the Knights still experienced difficulty in putting away the resilient Stingrays. The Stingrays trailed by 17 points in the second half but kept chipping away at the lead. They eventually got to within four points in the final minute of the game, but didn't have enough time to complete the comeback.
"I just told the girls to keep fighting," said Stingrays' Head Coach Glenda Gilcud. "If they wanted it, they had to go out there and fight for it, and they did that. We just came up a little short. For the most part, the officiating tonight was very poor. If you are going to allow the girls to play, let's play with fairness. Let's stop being biased!
"Otherwise, I think that my girls did a tremendous job. What hurt us today is that my main player was in foul trouble from the start. We felt like that's a championship that we should have had but those things happen. When it's a championship like this, I feel that we should be playing stop time and not running time. I think that cost us as well. Our girls were working hard from day one and to lose like this is unfortunate."
Angel Miller paced the 12 points in the decisive third game on Saturday, and Shavonya Adderley added 10. Atlanya Morris led the Knights with a game-high 14 points and Burdaera Sands contributed nine.
"The key today was trying to contain number 2 (Adderley)," said Knights' coach Lightbourne. "She is an awesome player. She really rallies her team, and her team rallies behind her. We had to take her out of the game. Once we did that and forced other players to beat us, we were okay. We slacked off a lot in the end and almost paid the price. I think fatigue settled in. The girls played a lot of basketball and it showed in the end. C.V. is a young team and they have quick legs. I have to take my hat off to them. They played well and gave us all we could handle."
The other three divisions in the GSSSA ended on Friday in two game sweeps. In the junior girls division, the H.O. Nash Lions completed a two-game sweep of the A.F. Adderley Tigers, in the junior boys division, the T.A. Thompson Scorpions ended the reign of the D.W. Davis Pitbulls, and in the senior boys division, the C.I. Gibson Rattlers won its second straight one-point game over the C.C. Sweeting Cobras, to end that series in two straight games. In both of those games, the Cobras had late leads, but couldn't hold off the charging Rattlers.
"My team really played hard in the last five minutes of those games," said Rattlers' Head Coach Kevin 'KJ' Johnson. "We weren't consistent but we pulled it off. Some of the players didn't step up like they were supposed to, but we were good enough to win and that is what matters. Hats off to C.C. They gave us a good series. Coming down to the end, we just were mentally tough, and showed a lot of desire and passion. We were determined to go out there and win and that is what we did."
Cobras' Head Coach Mario Bowleg said that it was a tough pill to swallow, but his boys will bounce back for the Hugh Campbell tournament and the national championships being staged by the Sports Unit of the Ministry of Education.
"We knew that it was going to be a very tough uphill battle, and it was," said Bowleg. "We played them four times this season and all of the games were close. All season long, they had the will to take the games away from us, or we would literally just give away the games. Taking nothing away from C.I. because they played with a lot of heart, but we have to find a way to execute better when the game is on the line. We continue to turn over the ball with just seconds left in games and we have to work on that."
Both coaches assured that their squads will be ready for the annual Hugh Campbell classic and the nationals. As for the GSSSA championships, for the first time, it was sponsored by BTC in conjunction with Cable Bahamas and the sports unit of the Ministry of Education. Jackie Adderley, assistant to Vice President of Brand and Communications at BTC Marlon Johnson, said that the telecommunications giant is all about helping out the youth of the country and they saw these championships as an opportunity to do that.

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