By Daniel Haynes

ANTIGUA and Barbuda recorded their first win in the Caribbean Basketball Confederation (CBC) U-16 Female Championship in remarkable fashion.The team, trailing by 12 at one point of the game, gutted out a comeback to beat the British Virgin Islands by 3 points 29-26.
The BVI looked as if they would have run away with the game in the first quarter of the low-scoring encounter. scoring 14 points to the Antiguan side’s 2. The Antiguans looked in danger of dropping behind in their second game of the tournament while the BVI looked as if they would continue their dominance.
However, at the start of the second quarter, the BVI girls were unable to find the basket and made none of their shots.
The Antiguans bounced back by scoring 11 points in the first five minutes and 2 in the last 5 while keeping BVI from scoring in the entire period to take the lead by 1 point at halftime.
The half ended 19-18 with Antigua ahead.
More missed attempts saw the BVI team fall behind by 1 point at the end of the third quarter while turning over the ball to Antiguans who never relinquished the lead. More of the same in the fourth quarter saw Antigua finish 29-23, giving them their first win after losing to Barbados by 3 points in their first game.
For Antigua it was captain Briana Gore who led them and finished with 11 points. BVI captain Shauliqua Fahie finished with 12 points in a losing effort.
Meanwhile, the second game was decided from the first quarter with Suriname taking on Trinidad and Tobago and beating them convincingly.
The first half of the game saw Suriname dominate the game from the word go, from jump shots to inside lay-ins, Suriname looked like a well-oiled machine, scoring 18 points in the first quarter with beautiful passing as well as finishing to take an 18-6 lead. The second quarter saw Suriname score Trinidad and Tobago’s combined first-half score of 13 to push their lead to 31-13.
It was Suriname’s size as well as game preparation – having played the Bahamas the night before – that showed the difference.
However, a slow third quarter from both teams saw Trinidad score 4 points while Suriname scored 12, taking the lead.
Suriname simply rode the momentum into the fourth and finished the game on top giving them their first win in two games, 59-26.