Cayman boys cruise to victory in Under-18 ‘Basketball Festival’ opener

Guard Brad Lansdell scored 17 points shooting 5 for 9 from three-point territory to go with eight steals, while captain Joshua O’Garro patrolled the paint scoring 22 points, eight rebounds and two steals as the Cayman Islands defeated Bermuda 85-49 on day one of the inaugural Under-18 Cayman Basketball Festival held at the John Gray Gymnasium.

Cayman controlled the game from start to finish leading 47-19 at half, with as second game on tap versus Port Arthur, Texas in the evening session starting at 8:00 p.m.

“We came out with a simple game plan which was to execute on defense, and play with a high court pressure,” said Assistant Head Coach Timothy Howard. “We forced turnovers, and the guys responded really well.  We were able to get a commanding lead, set up our offense and run our drills from there.”

Point guard and vice captain Kai Robinson pitched in with 23 points, four assists and three steals.

“This is a development programme, so we are trying to get them to understand what their assignments are,” said Howard. “Most of these guys are new, and we had a few jitters in the beginning. Once they settled down, we got into what we wanted to do. We had 20 kids that came out, and we cut it down. At any point in time we can bring guys in and make sure everyone gets proper development.”

Both Robinson and O’Garro won gold at the XVIII NatWest Island Games, while Lansdell is a Caymanian who now resides in Canada.

“Brad was exceptional,” said Howard. “He went to Canada and got more experience. He didn’t start because he was a new addition, but he was apart of our youth development programme, but he was able to come and be effective and play defense.”

“Kai is a great ball handler, he has great court vision, he is able to command the team and get them to do what we need. He is the general on the court,” said Howard. “Joshua is a pretty commanding on the inside, so it was a great addition to have them on the team with their experience.”

Here are the remaining games in the tournament: