By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

Four teams were sent home while the remaining four advanced to the championship round of the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS) sudden death playoffs yesterday at the Kendal GL Isaacs Gymnasium.

The Charles W Saunders (CWS) Cougars said goodbye to the St Augustine’s College (SAC) Big Red Machine with a 43-36 victory in the junior girls’ division.

The Cougars’ junior boys did not fare as well against the Jordan Prince William (JPW) Falcons in their game. 

The Falcons secured a 36-33 win to advance to the championship round.

In the senior girls’ matchup, the defending champions St John’s College (SJC) toppled the Big Red Machine 40-22 for a chance to defend their crown in the division.

The Queen’s College senior boys defeated the Falcons 67-62 to punch their tickets to the finals. 

Junior Girls

Last year the St Augustine’s College (SAC) Big Red Machine advanced all the way to the final round of the BAISS junior girls’ championship, this time around the team got eliminated in the sudden death playoffs by the Charles W Saunders Cougars.

Head coach Valerie Nesbitt was pleased to send the Big Red Machine packing in the win-or-go home playoffs.

“It feels good because last time they beat us by one with a couple seconds on the clock so we came prepared. We knew what we needed to do. We weren’t making our shots down in the fourth quarter but we capitalised on our free throws and we played defence,” she said.

CWS were already in the driver’s seat 21-16 at halftime but a strong second half was what they needed to halt the Big Red Machine.

The Cougars got a timely corner three from Laila Lenard who pushed the lead to 28-24 with 45 seconds remaining in the third period. 

They opened the fourth quarter leading the contest 29-24. 

The Big Red Machine stormed their way back to tie the game at 29 apiece with 5:02  on the clock.

The three ball stopped falling for Charles W Saunders but they made their points count at the charity stripe. 

Alyssa Bain, who scored a game-high 18 points, aced two free throws to put the team up by four (37-33).

SAC struggled to generate any offence from that point and missed three out of their four opportunities at the line down the stretch.

Bain cashed in on a breakaway layup in the final seconds to seal the game for the Cougars.

Marea Pickstock produced 17 points for SAC in the tough loss. 

Coach Nesbitt is looking forward to facing the next opponent.

“We just gotta prepare for whoever wins this next game for the junior girls and we will go from there. We just gotta capitalise off the last game, watch film and we will be good,” she said.

The team will await the winner of the St John’s College versus Queen’s College junior girls matchup today at 4pm.

Junior Boys

In a battle of the Baptist schools, it would be the Jordan Prince William Falcons that prevailed.

After the Cougars took a slim 14-13 lead at halftime, the second half belonged to the Falcons.

JPW put up a couple of shots from long range that weren’t falling which gave the Cougars momentum on the other end. 

The Falcons missed a three from the corner but the Cougars mailed it in on the other end to lead 18-13 at the 4:55 mark.

Elijah Pierre was a key cog in the Falcons’ offence, particularly in the fourth quarter. He connected on a crafty floater for the team to trail by just 1 (22-21) to end the third period. 

He talked about having the hot hand down the stretch.

“I wasn’t feeling good earlier but my coach told me to keep my head up and play strong so I just played strong so we could win it all. It feels great because I have been waiting on this opportunity for a long time,” he said.

In the final quarter, Pierre simply took over to overwhelm the Cougars’ defenders.

After Charles W Saunders opened the quarter with back-to-back layups, JPW’s point guard retaliated with six straight points to tie the game at 26 apiece.

He continued to find holes in the Cougars’ defence, including one play where he split the double team and drove to the bucket for a 33-29 cushion.

The Falcons were up 33-31 when Lamar Richards connected on a smooth floater followed by a game-clinching free throw to earn the win.

He spoke about how it felt to hit the big shot.

“It was a good feeling to win the game and help out my team. My mindset was to just score and win the game. It feels good to move on to the next round,” he said.

Keymani Wilson poured in a team-high 16 points for the Cougars in the loss. 

The Falcons are set to face the winners of the SAC versus SJC junior boys playoff game.

Senior Girls

The senior girls defending champions showed their experience against the Big Red Machine in a wire-to-wire victory.

Giants assistant coach Leealdo Seymour said it felt great to get some revenge against the Big Red Machine.

“It feels great. We have a different group of girls, our core of our older girls left. They beat us in the regular season but we weren’t worried about that [because] one of our key players was missing and they only beat us by four points. We knew we could beat them and it feels great and tremendous to advance,” he said.

SJC ran ahead 14-2 early in the first quarter and proceeded to cap off the first half in charge 27-4.

SAC showed more signs of life in the second half to outscore the Giants 18-13.

The Giants continued their dominance in the fourth, pulling away 30-17 until the Big Red Machine started to fight back.

The team managed to pull within 13 (33-20) as the game clock winded down. However, the Giants applied pressure once again for an 18-point cushion and never looked back.

Lebronique Demeritte turned in a team-high 12 points for the Giants in the dominant win. 

Coach Seymour expressed that defence will be the focal point for the team going forward.

“We have to play defence. Our offence is almost automatic. It is like a click thing but we have to step up on defence,” he said.

The team is now set to face the winner of the Kingsway Academy versus Jordan Prince William senior girls showdown today.

Senior Boys

It was a tightly contested game throughout the first two quarters but the Falcons’ senior boys held a 29-28 lead going into the second half of the ball game.

QC took the lead early in the third period with a layup in transition to jump ahead 30-29.

With the Comets leading 60-58 late into the fourth quarter, they added two more points from an offensive rebound to create a four-point separation with 1:07 remaining.

The Falcons hung around on the scoreboard but the Comets iced the game at the charity stripe to advance to the next round.

The Comets will await the victor of the Giants versus Cougars senior boys matchup.

The next bracket of the 2025 BAISS sudden death playoffs continues day at 4pm in the KGLI gym. These matchups will determine which teams will battle for the respective junior and senior division titles.