Akeem Marsh’s breakout performance hasn’t gone unnoticed.
Barbados may not have finished in the top four teams, but at least their talented big man was recognised among the region’s best, as he and female counterpart Dale-Marie Cumberbatch were named in the All Caribbean Basketball Confederations Championships second teams.
Both the first and second teams for the men’s and women’s tournaments were released last week in an overall awards list on caribbeanbasketball.com honouring the top performers from last month’s regional championships.
It served as the much-deserved recognition for an outstanding individual effort that saw the six-foot-nine Marsh finish the eight-team tournament fourth in scoring (15.8 ppg) and ninth in rebounding (6.0 rpg) at just his second appearance at a regional tournament.
He might even feel hard done by not to have made the first team at centre ahead of Cuba’s Yoan Luis Haiti (11.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg) despite leading the lefty in both major categories while shooting an eye-popping 57 per cent from the field.
But Luis Haiti was probably given the nod considering his nation reached the final while Marsh played for a Barbados team that lost more games than it won while finishing sixth.
Cumberbatch also had to settle for one of the forward spots on the second team despite leading the tournament in scoring at a healthy 24.4 points per game and ending up fourth in three-point accuracy (35.3 per cent).
She also took just over 19 shots a game while shooting 38 per cent from the floor on an overmatched women’s side that won just a single game en route to a similar sixth-place showing.
Her running mate and captain Toni Atherley received honourable mention after placing in the tournament’s top ten in scoring (12.6 ppg), rebounding (8.0 rpg), free throws made (2.6), three-pointers made (seven) and three-point percentage (30.0).
For his role in leading Bahamas to the men’s title, talented combo guard Marvin Gray was adjudged the championships’ most valuable player as well as the best guard.
He, gifted Vincentian big man Nyika Williams (22 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.8 bpg) and United States Virgin Islands (USVI) duo of Cuthbert Victor and Angel Rivera joined Luis Haiti on that first team.
Former NBA forward Rawle Marshall (19.2 ppg, 5.4 apg) of Guyana, Antiguan “stretch four” Ernest Scott, along with guards Sean Baptiste (St Vincent) and Rashid Cann (British Virgin Islands) round out the second team with Marsh.
Adjudged the women’s best centre, Jamaican “big” Shenneika Smith took home the MVP trophy as well as a spot on the first team with compatriot Jennifer George, Bahamian Jonquell Jones and USVI guards Natalie Day and Tanecka Carey.
