The Bahamas' senior women's national basketball team closed out its time at the 2017 International Basketball Federation's (FIBA) Centrobasket Championship on a high note yesterday, scoring a 68-65 come-from-behind victory over Guatemala in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. It was their final game of round-robin play. The women's team was on the verge of going winless through five games before putting out an extraordinary effort in the fourth quarter against Guatemala.
Leashja Grant led the way for Team Bahamas with a double-double of 14 points and 21 rebounds. Valerie Nesbitt scored 12 points and handed out five assists in the win, and Sha-Londa Neely scored 10 points and pulled down six rebounds.
It was the first time that The Bahamas had three players score in double figures at the same time in the tournament.
Neely came up huge for The Bahamas in the closing seconds of the game. She hit a lay-up with 1:10 left to play to put The Bahamas ahead 66-65. On the following possession, Angelica Cardenas pulled up for a mid-range jumper but it rimmed out. Phylicia Kelly grabbed the rebound and passed to Nesbitt who made her way to the rim but missed the shot. Neely was able to fight for the offensive rebound and converted on the second chance tip in to put The Bahamas ahead 68-65 with 30 seconds remaining. In the last 20 seconds of play, both Alma Lopez and Sonia Vasquez had chances to cut into the lead, but neither was able to convert on her shot attempts for Guatemala.
Team Bahamas trailed by as much as seven points in the third quarter. They outscored Guatemala 26-19 in the fourth.
On Saturday, the women's team suffered its largest defeat of the tournament, a 69-42 rout at the hands of Puerto Rico, the highest ranked team in the tournament.
Leashja Grant led the team once again in that game. She scored 15 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the loss. Both Kelly and Neely added 11 points apiece.
After they took a 32-19 lead in the first half, Puerto Rico outscored Team Bahamas 37-23 in the second half to secure the wire-to-wire win. On Friday night, The Bahamas fell 63-56 to the host country, the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Kelly led The Bahamas with 14 points, four rebounds and three assists in that game. Natalie Day had 22 points in the win for the Virgin Islands.
Grant led The Bahamas in scoring and rebounds at Centrobasket this year. She averaged 15.6 points and 10.6 rebounds through five games.
The Bahamas' other two games included a 64-48 loss to Jamaica and a 61-56 loss to Mexico.

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