By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The Providence Basketball Club’s 24th annual Yuletide Basketball Classic got off with a bang yesterday at the CI Gibson Gymnasium, despite the organisers having to juggle the line-up in the absence of a few teams.

The tournament, which features both the junior and senior boys’ division, will continue today at 9am and will run through Saturday when the two new champions will be crowned.

Heading into the remaining three days, the junior division has been dropped to two pools of six teams each instead of the four pools as originally planned.

Pool one now comprises DW Davis, AF Adderley, Queen’s College, Nassau Christian Academy, TA Thompson and Agape, while pool two will include St John’s, Jordan Prince Williams, ISBET, Charles W. Saunders, Teleos and Anatol Rodgers.

Likewise, the senior boys’ division still comprised four pools, but each has been reduced to just four teams. The makeup of the pools are as follows:

Pool 1 - CI Gibson A, Blazer Elite, Nassau Christian Academy and Mt Carmel. Pool 2 is made up of Charles W Saunders, Government High, Teleos and St John’s. Pool 3 features CC Sweeting, Galilee, Doris Johnson and Queen’s College. And in pool four are St George’s, CI Gibson B, Jordan Prince Williams and CV Bethel.

• Here’s a look at some of the games played on day one:

Senior boys’ division

Charles W Saunders 45, St John’s 19: In a match-up of two private schools that was over from the first quarter as the Cougars soared out to a 15-4 lead, the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools Sports’ champions kept the pressure on and made it look so easy.

Treymon Wright scored a game high 13 points and Gervasia Johnson added 10 to lead a potent offensive attack for Charles W. Saunders, who also clamped down defensively to take St John’s out of their rhythm. Makelin Darling had 10 in a losing effort.

“It was excellent. I saw growth,” said CWS’ head coach Dario Burrows, who didn’t have all of his players participate in the game. “The team came out and executed well. They played team ball. We didn’t rebound as well, but these off-season tournaments will only help us to get better.”

CC Sweeting 46, Queen’s College 28: In another strong offensive attack, the Cobras were too much for the Comets to handle with E. Adams leading the way with a game high 16 points. Davon Davis had 11 in a losing effort.

“I wasn’t satisfied with the effort. We had a long break and some of the players went to junkanoo,” said CC Sweeting’s coach Darshtyan Baker. “It took us a little while to get our feet under us, but once we did, we started to play a lot better.”

CV Bethel 46, CI Gibson B: After getting out early in the first half, the Stingrays had to hold down the stretch to prevail against the late comeback surge from the Rattlers in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter.

Daniel Bodie, who scored the game’s winning basket with nine seconds left on the clock, ignited their attack with a game high 23 points. Michael Pierre had 10 in a losing effort. “It was a good win. The guys were trying to burn off some of the food they ate over Christmas,” said CV Bethel’s coach Daniel Pratt. “But overall, the guys are just trying to get ready for the second half of the GSSSA season, so it was a good win and a good start to the tournament.”

Junior boys’ division

ISBET 34, Teleos 31: Paidys Turnquest came through with 11 points and Zhyon Thompson chipped in with seven to spark the win for the Eagles. Raymond Lowe matched the game’s high honours with 11 for the Cherubim in the loss.

“They performed well. This is the holiday season, so we’re just trying to get back into it,” said high jumper Kyle Alcine, who serves as the new coach of the team. “It was a good performance. We have a fairly good team. We just have to play more defence and we will be much better than we are now.”

Jordan Prince Williams 34, Anatol Rodgers 24: Antonio Knowles and Anthony Rolle provided a 1-2 punch with nine and eight points respectively to help fuel the Falcons in their win as they cut down the Timberwolves.

“We are out of sync. We need to get it together. We’re just not playing JPW basketball,” said Falcons’ coach Ernest Saunders. “We need to work on everything. We need to get our chemistry back, offensively and defensively. We have to get mentally prepared and physically tough.”

In two other junior boys’ games played, St John’s stomped past Charles W Saunders 47-8 and DW Davis knocked off Nassau Christian Academy 36-21.

• Here’s a look at the schedule for today:

Session one (senior boys), starting at 9am - Nassau Christian Academy vs CI Gibson A; Doris Johnson vs CC Sweeting; Teleos vs Charles W. Saunders; St John’s vs Government High School; St John’s vs Government High and St George’s vs CI Gibson B.

Session two (junior boys), starting at 4 pm - DW Davis vs Agape; AF Adderley vs TA Thompson; Queen’s College vs Nassau Christian Academy; St John’s vs Anatol Rodgers; Jordan Prince Williams vs Teleos; ISBET vs Charles W. Saunders; TA Thompson vs DW Davis; Agape vs Nassau Christian Academy; AF Adderley vs Queen’s College; Teleos vs St John’s; Anatol Rodgers vs Charles W. Saunders and Jordan Prince Williams vs ISBET.