Galilee College won the first Tertiary Dr. Keva Bethel Basketball Tournament, held the weekend, with a 75-66 win over The Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute out of Freeport on Saturday at the Sir Kendal Isaacs Gym.
Jeremy Hutchinson led in the championship win with 25 points and was named the Most Valuable Player. Meanwhile, BTVI's John Smith scored 31 points.
BTVI had defeated Success Training College 51-47 to move on to the championship game.
After the game, Hutchinson told The Bahama Journal that he was impressed with his team's level of play despite the fact that they only had a short amount of time to prepare.
"I am very proud of my team. With the raw talent that we have, everyone just had the sense to utilize whatever skills they learnt from night league and high school," Hutchinson pointed out.
The other colleges that participate in the two-day round robin tournament were the College Of The Bahamas and BTVI (New Providence).
Galilee's coach Giovanni Bullard said he expects for this championship to be the first of many.
"As a coach you have to prepare your team well for any tournament and we came out prepared today. I recently began working with the school. Since beginning I have been trying to do big things for the programme," Bullard said.
He added that the majority of the players on the team attend night classes at Galilee.
BTVI (Freeport) Coach Fred Delancy said that his team achieved its expectation, to compete well.
"I don't think that they expected to get this far. However, because they played together so well they reaped the benefits. The most challenging part of the tournament for the team was endurance," Delancy said. Delancy added that the tournament helped to prepare the team for the college's fourth tournament scheduled for March.
Former NBA and European Basketball League player Bernard Thompson, who was invited to the tournament by COB's Athletic Director, Greg Harshaw, observed the various coaching styles and level of play.
"By just observing the tournament I did not see a lot of guys working on jump shots... I just saw a lot of one-on-one play. Ultimately, when a player shows the ability to play within a system that is when you know there is a lot of talent. Getting to another level comes with a lot of coaching and consistent training whereby you develop certain game strategies," he said.
Thompson emphasized that education has to be first priority.
"I told many of the people who I spoke to at the gym that education has to be first. Student athletes must be able to maintain a certain GPA average. You can only play basketball for so long and you need something to fall back on, " Thompson said.
Thompson further indicated that he impressed upon the coaches who attended the clinic after the tournament, that they should find an appropriate coaching style and game strategy to suit a specific team.
In order to do this Thompson said coaches should refer and use techniques from different coaching styles to develop an overall strategy.
Sean Bastian, Assistant Director of Student Activities at COB, noted after the tournament that the main goal is to develop the tertiary schools in The Bahamas to the level where they could play in their own league.
"We have been overlooking this avenue whereby colleges can compete amongst themselves not only in basketball but also in other sports.
"I am hoping that this will be the precedent for the future whereby high school graduates who don't receive a scholarship from the USA would consider the local tertiary schools and get the same type of exposure," Bastian said.
- Austin DWI - New York DWI