WHAT A WAY to close out pool play.
Akeem Marsh had 16 points and ten rebounds as the ultramarine and gold rolled into the classification rounds with Friday’s wire-to-wire 85-50 blowout of a winless Cayman Islands at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation Championships.
There wasn’t the customary slow start this time, not with Keefe Birkett, Mark Bridgeman and Jeremy Gill drilling five first-quarter treys between them for an early 19-12 lead.
That advantage could’ve been more too were Barbados better equipped at containing Cayman ball-handlers in pick-and-roll situations.
Yet it was the bench that duly put this one to bed, more specifically Brooklyn-based guard Jabar Williams, who accounted for seven of 12 unanswered Bajan points to start the second period.
Showing the confidence of a wily vet, the little used reserve guard drilled back-to-back long jumpers and then a tough fall-away to beat the shot clock after Rahiim Gibbons got the ball rolling with a trey of his own (31-12).
Cayman did threaten, albeit briefly, as small forward Samuel Ogarro scored seven quick points, including a deep trey, a coast-to-coast lay-up plus two free throws to cut the deficit to 14 (33-19).
But Barbados’ starters simply returned to pick up where their reserves left off, rattling off another nine unanswered points when John Jones started the surge by beating everyone down the floor for an easy dunk.
Birkett and Gill finished with 14 and ten points respectively for Barbados – who will play successive classification games for fifth place – while Ebanks led Cayman with 15. (JM)
