By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net    

IN preparation for the 2025 FIBA AmericaCup, the men’s national basketball team pounded host Nicaragua in a pair of friendly matches over the weekend.

After blowing out Nicaragua by 39 points in their 95-56 opener on Thursday night at the Polideportivo Alexis Argüello in Managua, Team Bahamas came back and posted an 18-point (95-77) win on Saturday night.

Head coach Lourawls “Tum Tum” Nairn said it was a surreal experience coaching the guys whom he played with on the national team, as he represented The Bahamas in his new capacity.

Looking at the performance of Team Bahamas, Nairn said considering that they only had a walk through for their only practice before they played, he was extremely pleased with what he saw.

“The way we shared the ball was very encouraging as a coach,” he said. “We had about 52 assists in two games, which is a lot for a team that hasn’t practiced together, so I feel very encouraged by that.”

In Saturday’s finale, Franco Miller Jr led the attack with a game high 25 points with five assists and four rebounds. 

Isiah Mobley had 11 points, 10 rebounds and three assists and Dominik Bridgewater added 10 points with five assists, four rebounds and two steals.

Garvin Clarke, Samuel Hunter and Jaraun “Kino” Burrows all came off the bench with nine points and Lathaniel Bastian chipped in with eight points and 11 rebounds.

The Bahamas opened the game with a 24-18 lead at the end of the first quarter and surged ahead 44-30 at the half. They extended their margin to 72-50 at the end of the third.

Nochad Omier led three players from Nicaragua in double figures with 17 points.

Burrows, who still remains one of the leading men on the team at the age of 39, said the team played well. 

“Our energy, our fighting spirit was there,” said the team captain. “It’s still early in the training camp, so we still have a week of practice to continue to implement coach Tum’s system and to create the habits on offense and defense that the coaches want.

“But overall, I’m happy with what we saw early in this training camp for the two games and I feel like now that we have time to go back to the video and implement more systems and more defensive things, we will continue to get better over the course of this training camp.”

Team Bahamas is preparing for the AmeriCup, which will take place in Managua, Nicaragua from August 22-31 with a total of 12 teams participating in three different groups.

Nairn said as they prepare for the tournament, they will spend this week implementing their system offensively and defensively.

“We will actually get a chance to break things down this week, so we’re just going to take it one day at a time teaching these guys what we want,” Nairn said. “But I think we are off to a good start.”

By August 22, Nairn said they will release the final team that will compete for Team Bahamas in the tournament. He said there could be a slight change in the line-up, but that will depend on this week’s practice sessions.

The Bahamas, the only English speaking country from the Caribbean, will play out of Group A alongside the United States of America, Brazil and Uruguay. 

Group B include Panama, Venezuela, Canada and Puerto Rico and in Group C are the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua and Argentina.

The Bahamas will open up against the United States on Saturday, August 23rd and will follow up with their second game on Sunday, August 24th against Brazil. Their final will be against Uruguay on Tuesday, August 26th.

The top two teams from each group, along with the two best third-place teams, will advance to the Quarter-Finals. The eight quarter finalists will be seeded from 1 to 8 based on their performance in the Group Phase. The winners of the Quarter-Finals will move on to the Semi-Finals, where they will compete for a spot in the Gold Medal Game.

Argentina are the defending champions, having won the title in the last tournament played in 2022 over Brazil. The United States had to settle for third place.

The USA have not won the title since 2007 when they defeated Argentina. The USA, however, has qwon a total of even titles, three more than Brazil. Argentina and Puerto Rico have won it three times.

This is only the second time that the Bahamas has qualified to participate in the tournament that started in 1980 and is now into its 20th edition.