By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas women’s national basketball team gave it another gallant effort but suffered a 105-81 loss yesterday to the US Virgin Islands in the FIBA Caribbean Women’s Championships in  Georgetown, Guyana.

While USVI ended the tournament undefeated at 4-0 with eight points for the top spot, The Bahamas dropped to third place at 2-2 with six points to qualify for next year’s Centrobasket Women’s Championship.

Speaking from the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall in Georgetown, Guyana following the loss to the USVI, Bahamas’ head coach Donillo ‘Donnie’ Culmer said he was proud of the team because they accomplished their mission. “We came here to qualify, so that’s the main thing,” said Culmer, who was assisted by Jaraun ‘Kino’ Burrows, Diasti Delancy and Anthony Swaby. “With what we had, that was what we went with. These were basically the girls who came out and so we really didn’t have to cut the team.”

Culmer, however, said for next year, the Bahamas Basketball Federation will have to get some of the country’s bigger players to fill the void they were missing in the frontcourt.

“Our guards were super. They played excellently, but our forwards were our weak spots,” he stated. 

“We just have to look for some bigs.”

Based on the way they played, Culmer said if they didn’t have the issues they encountered getting into Guyana and playing the host team on the opening day, losing 102-75, he felt they could have been at least the second best team in the tournament.

After that loss on Wednesday, The Bahamas bounced back to win their next two games, beating Suriname 77-45 on Thursday and taking down Jamaica 88-56 on Friday. 

The team was off on Saturday before closing play against the USVI yesterday. 

Lashann Higgs tried her best to keep The Bahamas in the game, but the Virgin Islands was a little too much to handle as they ran a mixture of plays inside and out. 

Nesbitt was the most consistent player for Team Bahamas, with a game high 37 points with five rebounds, three assists and as many steals. The Harbour Island native was followed by Valerie Nesbitt, who added 32 points seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Valencia Demeritte chipped in with six points, while LaTavia Braynen had four points and three rebounds and Latoya Rolle had two points with three rebounds. 

Anisha George led a balanced scoring attack for the Virgin Islands with 26 points and 21 rebounds. 

Five other players scored in double figures as they produced one of three games in which a team scored more than 100 points in the tournament.

Coach Culmer noted that the game was totally different from the previous three games they played. “They let us play all tournament and then they changed the rules in this game,” he said. “We just couldn’t make the adjustments.

“I don’t want to blame it on the referees, but we just couldn’t contain them. We tried to make some adjustments, but it was a bit too late.”

The Virgin Islands took control of the game from the first quarter with a 29-19 advantage and they extended it to 56-44 at the half.

The Bahamas turned things around a bit in the third as they were only out-scored by two points (21-19) to trail 77-63 going into the fourth. 

But the Virgin Islands went into another gear with a 28-18 tear in the final period to put the game out of reach.