By Daniel Haynes

JAMAICA have secured three straight wins in the Caribbean Basketball Confederation male U-16 Championships this time beating Aruba on day 4.In the first quarter of the game, Aruba and Jamaica both came out showing what game exposure and competition exposure looked like. Both teams appeared evenly matched with Aruba going into the second quarter up by one with the score 12-11.
The second quarter was much of the same. However, Aruba tried double-teaming the seemingly unstoppable Jamaican point guard Jalen Menzies. The Jamaican attack was well balanced with Samora Williams contributing per normal. The quarter finished 26-26 with no team yielding.
However, coming out of the half the Jamaican team would not be denied, scoring 45 points in the half to Aruba’s 32. Menzies and Samora Williams were again the high point men for Jamaica with 15 and 18 points respectively. Williams also added 11 rebounds. Once again Jabari Cunningham played his supporting role well with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Star shooter Leonardo Winterdal had easily his worse shooting performance in the tournament, scoring only 6 of his 18 attempts. He scored only 15 points in his final game of the tournament. For Aruba, Jahleel Heemstadt was the only other scorer in double digits with 11 points.
With the loss Aruba have been eliminated from the tournament with a record of 1-3 from their four games.
Jamaica’s final group game will be against Guyana today at 20:00hrs.
Meanwhile Bahamas continue sheer dominance, recording a 104-point victory over the Dominican side. The game finished 125-21, cementing Bahamas’ position as tournament favourites.
From the first quarter the game was already won with the Bahamas recording 34 points in the quarter to Dominica’s 8. The up-tempo, high pressure defence the Bahamas employed stifled almost all of Dominica’s offence with the latter side scoring from free throws.
The second quarter was much of the same with Bahamas limiting the side to 3 points while scoring 27 of their own. Heading into the half the score was 61-11.
The second half of the game brought nothing but misery for the Dominica side who had all but 10 points in the quarter to Bahamas’ 64.
Bahamian player Davonte Moxey put the icing on the cake with a LeBron James-like tomahawk dunk to finish the game, much to the delight of the bench.
Turnovers were the ultimate letdown for Dominica, with Bahamas forcing 58 of them, with 52 of them being forced and 6 unforced.
Seven Bahamian players recorded double-digit point totals with Domnick Bridgewater scoring a game-high 20 with 9 steals and Chosen Levarity recording 18. No Dominican player scored in double figures with Jamie John-Rose having a game high 6 for his side.