A historic high followed by a woeful low. Trinidad and Tobago’s 3×3 Men’s and Women’s Basketball team showed up to the FIBA 3X3 AmeriCup tournament in Miami, Florida on Friday hoping to be a part of the main draw of the tournament, but it was not meant to be.
Starting with the men, T&T’s team made up of captain Adrian Joseph, Steven “Lighter” Lewis, Moriba De Freitas and Nathyon Lewis, got on the right track with their first ever win in 3×3 Basketball play against Guyana, beating them 21-13 behind Lewis’ team high 11 points.
T&T then faced Guatemala for a chance to win the group, allowing them to qualify for the main draw of the tournament. It was either a win or not to lose by more than 3 points. T&T would go on to score the first 3 points but Guatemala would go on to score 12 unanswered points, putting T&T in a hole they would eventually not recover from. Final score was 21-14 with Adrian Joseph leading the team in scoring with 9.
The 3×3 Women’s team would be next to make their debut in 3×3 play, competing on Saturday in Pool B with Argentina and hosts USA. The team is comprised of Chervelle Cox, who has played pro-basketball in Europe, foreign-based player Kristin Rampersad who’s been playing basketball collegiately, former UTT Patriots and current Police player Kielle Connelly, and 19-year old Nikiya Baptiste.
Trinidad and Tobago would eventually be swept out of the qualifying draw with a heavy 20-2 deafeat at the hands of a USA team that featured WNBA’s Most Improved Player Brionna Jones and Seattle Storm guard Haley Gorecki scoring 7 points each. Kielle Connelly and Kristin Rampersad split T&T’s point total with one each.
Against Argentina it was a much scrappier affair with inefficient shooting and physical play on both sides but once again T&T would be outdone by the more experienced Argentinians 15-6. Chervelle Cox would lead the scoring this time with 4 points.
Q Sports 