GEORGE­TOWN, Guyana – The Vir­gin Is­lands pro­duced a com­mand­ing per­for­mance to rout Guyana 78-54 and send the hosts crash­ing to their first de­feat of the FI­BA Caribbean Women’s Bas­ket­ball Cham­pi­onship on Thurs­day.

Cen­tre An­isha George was the dri­ving force for the Vir­gin Is­lands, miss­ing just two of her 12 shots on her way to fin­ish­ing with a game-high 23 points, to go along with four re­bounds and two blocks.

She re­ceived good sup­port from Tay­lor Jones, who added 18 points.

Ruth Adams led the way for Guyana with 16 points, while cap­tain Joy Adams-Brown had a sol­id all-around game to fin­ish with a dou­ble-dou­ble of 13 points and 15 re­bounds.

The de­feat was a sharp con­trast to their dom­i­nant start, where they thumped the Ba­hamas 102-75 on the open­ing night.

In the day’s ear­li­er match, The Ba­hamas (1–1) se­cured their first win, de­feat­ing Suri­name 77–45, fu­eled by an im­pres­sive per­for­mance by Lashann Hig­gs.

Hig­gs put on a shoot­ing clin­ic, knock­ing down sev­en three-point­ers on her way to a game-high 35 points in just 16 min­utes of play, and added sev­en re­bounds and sev­en as­sists.

Her team­mate Va­lerie Nes­bitt con­tributed a dou­ble-dou­ble with 13 points and 11 as­sists.

Suri­name (0–2) saw a sol­id in­di­vid­ual ef­fort from Be­y­once Je­dinie, who post­ed 15 points and 11 re­bounds.

The tour­na­ment runs through Sun­day, with the top three teams earn­ing berths to the FI­BA Women’s Cen­trobas­ket Cham­pi­onship 2026.

CMC