Virgin Island men begin play in Centrobasket tourney
The Virgin Islands Men's Senior National Basketball Team, looking to build off a strong showing in Jamaica last month, opens play in the 2006 Men's Centrobasket Tournament today in Panama
From www.virginislandsdailynews.com
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The Virgin Islands Men's Senior National Basketball Team, looking to build off a strong showing in Jamaica last month, opens play in the 2006 Men's Centrobasket Tournament today in Panama.
The Virgin Islands begins the five-day, eight-team tournament with a game against defending champion Dominican Republic. The V.I. team will compete in Group A with the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and host Panama. Puerto Rico, Mexico, Jamaica and Cuba will compete in Group B.
The top seven teams from the Centrobasket advance to the Central American and Caribbean Games later this month in Colombia, the top four move on to the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship and the top three qualify for the 2007 Pan American Games.
The V.I. team showed promise while qualifying at the Caribbean Basketball Confederation Championships in June, starting the tournament 4-0 before running out of gas against host Jamaica in the gold-medal game. The silver-medal finish was the best for the Virgin Islands men since the team won gold in 2002.
Some changes have been made to the V.I. roster for the Centrobasket, but all the key players from the CBC Championships are returning. Point guard Kevin Sheppard was the V.I.'s most potent scorer in Jamaica, averaging 15.6 points per game, and will be counted on to propel the offense once again in Panama. Former Murray State forward Cuthbert Victor, 15.4 points per game, and Drexel University junior forward Frank Elegar, 11.0 ppg, give the V.I. a pair of reliable offensive options on the interior.
The only member of the starting lineup from Jamaica that will not be back is 6-foot-10 center Jaja Richards. He will be replaced on the roster by centers Kitwana Rhymer and Alphonso Niles. Also gone are forward George O'Garro and guard Devon Peltier. Both were used only sparingly in the CBC Championships.
In place of O'Garro and Peltier, the team added local high school players Craig Williams Jr. and Khalid Gerard. Williams, a senior center-forward at Central High School, and Gerard, a senior swingman at Charlotte Amalie High School, will be seeing their first action in senior-level competition.