A late surge in the fourth quarter was just the remedy the St. Augustine's College Big Red Machine needed, to pull off the win yesterday, in the first game in the Bahamas Association of Independent Senior Schools (BAISS) Basketball Championships.
The Big Red Machine bounced back from a 9-1 run, in the winding minutes of the third, to defeat the Kingsway Academy Saints 35-21. The 14-point win put the Big Red Machine up one game in the best of three game series. They could close out today, but Head Coach of the Saints Randy Cunningham is banking on a win.
Cunningham said last night: "To move on, [Tuesday] we need to make easy baskets. We missed about 15 to 20 free throws today. We have to make the easy baskets, do a better job of offensive rebounding. We made them miss the first shot, but they got a lot of second and third rebounds. Some times they even got the fourth rebound and they just beat us to just about all the loose balls.
"We will bounce back and play better [Tuesday]. We didn't shoot well and we had a very good third quarter. They had a 12 or 13 point lead but we came back and closed the lead to just three points in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, we sort of lost our legs and we had a lot of opportunities, but we just didn't capitalize on them. Like I told my big girls, they have to make some baskets."
Top scorer for the Big Red Machine was O'Bree Carey with a high of 12 points. Dionnae Culmer chipped in with eight and Chyna Curry scored seven. It was Curry's fast break that started the offensive surge for her team. Her lay-up was the only field goal scored in the first quarter. The Saints' first score came in the second, a two-pointer that cut the lead to four. That was the closest the Saints would come, to the Big Red Machine, thanks to Carey who took control of the offense, feeding Curry and Culmer on the run.
Although the Big Red Machine got the win, their head coaches still believe that they didn't execute properly. Annastacia Sands-Moultrie said: "To me and Mr. Culmer, as coaches, we know that they can do a better job. They still were a little tense, but in the end we were able to still pull it off. We have to close it out. We can't give no team new life. There will always be concerns, but if you know the potential of your team, once you keep trying to get them to do what they are suppose to do, then we will prevail in the end as a team."
Leading the offensive charge for the Saints was Tanae Bowleg with eight points. Both Alana Pinder and Logan Burrows scored five points and Valicia Demeritte added three. The second game will be played today at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs Gymnasium, tipping off at 4 p.m.

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