By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

IT WAS a long weekend for the junior under-15 (U15) women’s national basketball team at the 2024 FIBA Centrobasket U15 Women’s Championship in David, Panama. 

The 12-member team wrapped up their FIBA tournament experience in the eighth position with a 0-5 win/loss record following a 64-47 loss to Nicaragua on Sunday evening.

Turnovers played a pivotal role in The Bahamas’ fifth loss of the tournament, according to coach Anton Francis.

“Nicaragua wanted the game more than us. As a coaching staff, we discussed limiting turnovers and scoring the ball. We absolutely did not limit the turnovers today. We had 44 turnovers and you cannot really win a game with those kinds of turnovers. The future is definitely bright if we could keep this core of young ladies. We are gonna take time out to work with them year round with this group and an additional group. We are gonna continue to scout the Family Islands,” he said.

Andica Curtis led The Bahamas in points, rebounds, assists and steals. She averaged 10.6 points per game, 6.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 4.6 steals in five games played.

Although she had an inefficient scoring game against Nicaragua yesterday, she still managed to put up 12 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals.

Ricarra Beadle led the team in scoring with 16 points and 8 rebounds.

The Bahamas took the first quarter against their opponents 8-7. Nicaragua struggled through a 2-for-20 shooting slump but managed to stay within striking distance on the scoreboard. 

After leading the first quarter, The Bahamas fell behind 17-12 when Nicaragua’s Sharon Watson hit a pair of free throws in the second period. 

Nicaragua held a 3 point lead at the halftime break, 21-18.

They proceeded to outscore The Bahamas 43-29 in the second half.

With a number of members on Team Bahamas experiencing FIBA play for the first time, coach Francis outlined how the team can improve going forward.

“We must have more competition. We must have an additional league for young ladies. We have to have young ladies that are interested in the sport at an early age and then you need to train them. 

“Our coaches in their home programmes and in their school programmes need to ensure that they make training fun, make sure that the young ladies keep their interest and ensure that they get better so that when they come to a national team tryout it is not like coaches are holding a camp,” he said. 

Nicaragua had 32 steals in the game while The Bahamas had 14. 

They had 37 points off turnovers and The Bahamas had 12.

Nicaragua pushed the ball in the open court for 32 fastbreak points and The Bahamas only had 11 points.

Puerto Rico, Mexico and Panama were the top three finishers in the tournament. 

All three teams will move on to the FIBA U16 Women’s AmeriCup 2025.