By TENAJH SWEETING
Tribune Sports Reporter
tsweeting@tribunemedia.net
For the second consecutive season, the St John’s College (SJC) Giants claimed three out of the four basketball titles to close out the Bahamas Association of Independent Secondary Schools (BAISS) best-of-three championship series last night at the Kendal GL Isaacs Gymnasium.
The Giants swept the junior division with the girls and boys repeating as champions for the second straight year.
The junior girls won their series 2-1, winning game three 37-29 over the Charles W Saunders Cougars.
The junior boys took game three 45-42 over the Jordan Prince Williams Falcons.
In the final matchup, the Giants’ senior boys steamrolled the Queen’s College Comets 73-55 in game three of their series.
Senior Boys
The SJC senior boys’ team were the only basketball group missing from last year’s championship celebrations. This time around the senior team completed the championship trio.
Head coach Dastyn Baker was visibly overjoyed as he spoke about how it felt to be crowned as the senior boys’ champions.
“I feel like a champ and it feels good. This is what we practiced for all year. We finally made it. This was our goal in the beginning to come to the senior boys [championships] and win the senior boys’ title,” he said. Coach Baker added that title felt even sweeter knowing that he got it done with last year’s juniors who are now a part of the senior team.
“I feel good because I did it with my junior boys. They were my guys that won last year and they came up and they were hungry. All year we got everybody’s best shot and our guys stepped up to the challenge and they rose to the occasion,” he said.
The Giants displayed the heart and determination from the first half of the contest
The team secured a 23-12 advantage at the halftime break after leading by just 2 (9-7) in the first period.
SJC really got things going in the third quarter against the Comets. The team surged ahead 48-22 late in the third and were in charge 50-28 with one quarter left to play.
The Giants never looked back after this point.
The Most Valuable Player (MVP) honours went to Leonardo Rolle. He finished the game with a team-high 21 points with all scored in the second half.
His teammate Deren Moultrie was the second leading scorer with 17 points.
Junior Boys
The Giants put together an insurmountable run in the fourth quarter to claim the junior boys crown for a second straight year.
Coach Baker was happy to see his team defy this season’s odds as the fourth seed to emerge as two-time champions.
“It feels good. Just two weeks ago we almost didn’t make it here. We were in the fifth spot and somebody had to win in order for us to get in here and that is just a test of our resilience. We battled and the guys just came out and they battled and now we are back here to the mountaintop again,” he said.
The Falcons held a double-digit lead early in the fourth period 35-25 until SJC mounted a 9-0 run to close in 35-34 with 3:20 remaining.
Baker talked about his message to the team ahead of the final period.
“I just told my guys this is the last game there isn’t anything you could do, you are either gonna win or lose. I told them just go out there, shoot the ball, dribble the ball, do what you were taught and what you practiced all these years and they just went on there and performed,” he said.
With less than 30 seconds to go, the Giants got a big steal and Deandre Baker finished off the play with a layup to take the lead 43-42.
Baker also stepped up to the line and drained a pair of free throws to clinch the game.
Game three did not end without its fare share of controversy as one of the Falcons assistant coaches overtly expressed grievances with the referees’ officiating.
The Falcons basketball team failed to return to the court on the following possession despite the referees calling the basketball team three times, resulting in a forfeit with 2.8 seconds remaining.
Brando Thompson was named the MVP of the game with 12 points.
His teammate Deandre Baker dropped 11 points in the championship victory.
Junior Girls
A strong first half performance was what the SJC junior girls needed to defeat the Cougars in game three.
The team went into the third quarter leading 21-16.
The Giants kept the momentum going after Melodi Ferguson scored on a floater to push the score to 30-18 with less than two minutes to go in the third.
Any chance the Cougars had to make a run, the Giants would extend the lead back to double digits. The team sat comfortably ahead 37-27 with 2:02 left in the fourth and held on for the win.
Giants head coach Malcolm Rahming was very pleased with the team’s second straight championship victory.
“It feels good. It always feels good to win and I am blessed to win a second one but the best one is always the next one,” he said.
Marianna Guzman was named the MVP. She scored a team-high 10 points in the championship series.
The trio of Giants basketball teams joined the Kingsway Academy senior girls as the newly crowned champions for the 2025 BAiSS basketball season.
