By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

The home-court advantage paid dividends for Team Bahamas as they dominated Cuba 97-74 to secure their first victory of the third and final window of the FIBA AmeriCup 2025 Qualifiers last night at the Kendal GL Isaacs Gymnasium.

It was a must-win game and the host team benefited greatly from hometown cooking from long range to shoot the Cuban national team out of the gym and stave off elimination in Group D play.

Team Bahamas improved to a 2-3 (win/loss record), good enough for the second spot in the Group D standings.

The Bahamas’ head coach John Lucas III gave special credit to his players for their performance in the must-win game.

“The coaching staff and I put together a great game plan for a lot of their key players and a lot of their guys. I gotta tip my hat off to the players, they came out here and they played their butts off. They represented the Bahamas to the fullest in this game and they understood what it was to take and how we wanted to respond. ‘We got to take care of our house’ and that is all we kept preaching the last three days when we all got together,” he said.

The Bahamas had a balanced scoring effort with five players hitting double digits in the contest. 

Long island native Tavario Miller put up a game-high 26 points, complemented by eight rebounds, a block and a steal in 26 minutes of action. He also shot the ball well, going 12-for-15 from the field for 80 per cent shooting.

Domnick Bridgewater scored 16 points to go along with four assists and Sammy Hunter dropped 14 points to pair with six rebounds. The game was neck-and-neck in the opening quarter with Team Bahamas sneaking away with a narrow 26-20 lead following a 6-0 run to close out the first.

The second quarter was where the host team really got things going from behind the arc. 

Team Bahamas pushed the deficit to double-digit territory (32-20) after Miller threw down a thunderous dunk early in the second period.

Miller spoke about what he saw from Cuba’s defence last night.

“They were throwing a lot of different things out there with one on ones, pick and rolls, different coverages but coach John Lucas did a great job telling us what they were gonna do…so we prepared for everything they had,” he said.

Eron Gordon cashed in on a deep three to give Team Bahamas a 16-point lead with 2:16 remaining in the first half.

The Bahamas had full control of the game at halftime, leading 51-34 with one half remaining.

In the third period, Miller made a quick layup which gave Team Bahamas a 20-point cushion (59-39) at the 6:05 mark.

Cuba had a few big moments in the second half but they never had an answer for the home team after falling behind in the second period.

Jasiel Rivero scored a team-high 15 points and pulled in four boards for Cuba in the loss.

The home team pushed the ball in the open court, translating to 21 fastbreak points while Cuba only had 9.

They also won the rebound battle 48-35 and their bench unit outscored Cuba’s 35-19.

Team Bahamas will now look to build on this momentum against the USA on Sunday night. The USA, who qualified with their win against Puerto Rico last night, currently leads the Group D standings with a 4-1 record.

In their previous matchup, the USA defeated The Bahamas 97-74.

Miller encouraged Bahamians to play the role of a “sixth man” as Team Bahamas will hope to seek revenge against the USA on Sunday.

“It is the best thing. I hope they can come out and support us in full on Sunday.  We definitely need the crowd. We have team USA coming in and it is gonna be a big game but the crowd that was here tonight were loud, cheering, showing a lot of pride for our country,” he said. 

Team Bahamas will host the USA on Sunday night at 7:10pm in the Kendal GL Isaacs Gymnasium.