Heading into the season, the Home Gas Flames looked like afterthoughts in women’s basketball.
The roster saw a huge overhaul and the team had to adjust to a new coach. Now the defending champions are on a two-game winning streak and back in the mix for the 2012 Cayman Islands Basketball Association national women’s league crown.
Home Gas beat the Island Heritage Silver Mist 49-42 last Thursday at the University College of the Cayman Islands multipurpose hall. Meredith Whitney (three points, three rebounds) is among the newcomers that suited up for the match. The West Bay resident, who attends St. Matthew’s University after coming here from Nova Scotia, Canada, states the team is still in a learning phase.
“We play well together as a team,” Whitney said. “I’ve seen an improvement in the past three weeks and it helps with the team game. We just got to keep moving fast, play tough defence and look to turn the ball over. We got a lot of talented ladies on the team.
“This is my first time playing in this league and only our third game together. We got to learn to play with each other. We’re working on offence and defence. We can be one of the top teams. If we keep moving on offence and working on defence there’s no doubt we’ll be good.”
Thursday’s match was a tight affair. The Flames, under Bruce Reynolds, had a narrow eight-point lead by half-time before increasing it to 11 by the end of the third quarter. Daniel Augustine’s Silver Mist would rally back in the fourth with a 17-13 edge.
As usual, the stars for Home Gas were La-Torae Nixon, 14 and Sade Wood, 25. Nixon followed her triple-double effort against Welly’s with a double-double performance thanks to 23 points, 14 rebounds and six blocks. Wood had 16 points, five rebounds and three steals. Island Heritage were led by multi-sport star Scimone Campbell (16 points, eight rebounds), Lavern Ebanks and her solid double-double (10 points, 12 rebounds) and new mum Letanya Thompson (11 points off of three three-pointers).
With the win, Home Gas are 2-1 and in second place behind the 3-1 Dominos Lady Heels and ahead of 2-1 Welly’s Cool Spot. The Lady Wolves are fourth at 1-2 and Island Heritage are in the cellar at 0-3.
Dominos jumped to the top of the table thanks to a 63-28 thrashing of the Wolves. Four Lady Heels were in double figures as Courtisha Ebanks led all scorers with 12 points, nine steals and six rebounds, Dionne Anglin produced a double-double (11 points, 14 rebounds), Hannah Parchment had 11 points and three steals and Kamilla Nagy had a quiet 10 points and five rebounds.
The biggest producers for the Wolves were Cassianne Lawrence (eight points, six rebounds, three blocks) and Theresa Hamil (eight points, 11 rebounds, two steals).
League matches were played yesterday at UCCI and another double-header is slated for next Thursday, 1 March. The Wolves battle Welly’s at 6pm while Dominos tackle Home Gas at 7.30pm.
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