By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Teleos Cherubims junior boys’ team got off to a great start in Freedom Baptist Academy’s fifth annual Majority Rule Basketball Tournament over the weekend.

The tournament for primary boys and girls and junior girls got started at the Anatol Rodgers Gymnasium on Saturday. It will conclude on Wednesday during the Majority Day holiday.

“I think we’re doing excellent,” said Renaldo Maycock, Teleos’ head coach. “I think they are performing above and beyond what I expected of them.

“We just have to continue to play defence and do what we have been doing today and that is win so that we can win this tournament too.”

Teleos is coming off a pair of victories in the Father Marcian Peters Invitational and the Temple Christian Academy tournaments and Maycock said he would like nothing better than to add this one to their collection for Pastor Dave Adams.

Standing in their way of success is Christian Heritage. Coach Emerick Taylor said they want to avenge their only loss in the tournament to Akhepran. “I still think there are things that they could be doing. They are not getting back on defence,” he pointed out.

“But I guess we will see how it goes on Wednesday. We will be ready for that team that beat us on Wednesday.”

Josiah Major, one of the tournament directors, said they invited a number of teams to participate, but they got a lot of response from the teams in the Bahamas Scholastic Athletic Association who showed up. “The first day went pretty good. We had some good competition, so I want to thank God for that,” he said.

Major said he missed a lot of his players because they were not back in school yet, but he was pleased with what they accomplished.

He said they are looking forward to the completion of the tournament on Wednesday when they play the remaining games before they get into the championships in all of the divisions.

Tabitha Major, coach of Freedom Baptist primary and junior girls, said she’s been quite pleased with the performances from her teams. “My teams did a great job because even though we opened school on Tuesday, everybody wasn’t together, so we just came out with what we had,” she said.

“I felt my teams did very well. The mini teams are just 7-8 year girls and they are playing with my 11-year-olds, so I think they did a great job.” Unfortunately, Major won’t be available to coach her teams on Wednesday as she left town today for Trinity Baptist College in Jacksonville, Florida to study for her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. In her absence, Norleen Henfield, who has assisted Major, along with Major’s brother, Josiah, will ensure that Freedom Baptist continue to perform at a high level.

Major leaves the junior girls in good stead, having made it to the final of the Father Marcian Peters Invitational for the first time in the school’s history. She’s hoping that they can pull it off in their tournament on Wednesday.

As usual, Temple Academy is one of the competitive teams in the tournament. Coach Keno Demeritte revealed that they entered five teams and they are holding their own.

“So far, our mini boys, our primary girls and the junior girls are in the championship,” he said. “We are only waiting on the junior boys and mini girls to get into the championship.

“We want to have a good showing here. It looks like we could be going home with at least four championship trophies. It’s a good tournament because it allows us to play more games.”

Temple Christian are the defending champions in the mini and the primary girls divisions.

Here’s a summary of the games played on Saturday:

Temple Christian 15, Temple Christian 9: In a showdown between teams from the same school, the boys took advantage of the girls in this mini game as J Smith scored a game high five points.

Tori Gaitor had four in the loss for the girls.

Teleos 16, Temple Christian 12: Martino Bethel scored a game high nine points and Andrew Bethel added five in their primary boys’ win for Teleos.

For Temple, M Pinder had six.

Hillcrest 25, Genesis 15: Jakyo Kemp scored a game high 15 points in their primary boys’ win.

Nathan Wallace had 10 in the loss.

Freedom Baptist 14, Temple Christian 13: Aaliyah Henfield scored nine points in their junior girls’ win.

In the loss, C Ferguson had six points.

Teleos 40, Freedom Baptist 16: Martino Butler, Anderson Bethel and Emmanuel Adams all came up with nine points and Brendon Darville had eight in their primary boys’ win.

Deangelo Wilson and Elkino McQueen had six apiece in the loss.

Temple Christian 16, Genesis 3: In their primary boys’ blowout, T Stubbs and R Culmer had four and three points respectively.

Alex Braulinch had two in the loss.

Akhepran International Academy 33, Christian Heritage 25: Jaden Strachan pumped in a game high 12 points and Aivinado Parker had four in their junior boys’ rout.

Jurrco Saunders scored nine and Israel Kelly had six in a losing effort.

Hillcrest 17, Freedom Academy 7: Jakyo Kemp scored eight and Trinity Bodie had four in their primary boys’ victory.

Deangelo Wilson scored four and Joseph Henfield had three in the loss.

Akhepran International 42, Freedom Baptist 16: Jaden Strachan came up with a game high 12 and DeCoda Johnson had 10 in their junior boys’ win.

Ludervens Vileaint and Deontae Johnson both had four in the loss.

Temple Christian 20, Freedom Baptist 1: Darville McCoy came up with eight and Claire Ferguson had four in their primary girls’ triumph.

Weddalindesi Alexis had the only point for the losers.

Christian Heritage 34, Freeport Baptist: Jurreo Saunders canned a game high 18 points and Yori Young had five in their junior boys’ decision.

Lee Anderson and Deontae Johnson both had six and Leonardo Pratt four in the loss.