PHILIPSBURG--St. Martin defeated Dominican Republic 78-58 at the on-going third annual Battle of the Fittest International Basketball Tournament at L.B. Scott Sports Auditorium last night.
The Frenchside team won the tournament in 2015 and look to repeat. St. Martin opened the competition against Anguilla and won 72-62 Monday.
The competition is divided into two pools. In the North bracket are Aruba, USA, St. Maarten and Philippines. In the South pool are Tortola, St. Martin, Anguilla and Dominican Republic.
St. Martin started slow Wednesday. It took the team 30 seconds to score the game’s first basket. It was a three pointer. Dominican Republic did not hit a two until there was 7:31 left in the 10-minute long first quarter. The game was tied at 4-4 at 6:56. Dominican went up 6-4 at 5:37 and remained ahead at 8-6 at 4:49. St. Martin slowly picked up the pace and went on to win by 20 points.
The Together We Can Foundation is hosting the competition which features a US $5,000 first prize.
St. Maarten lost to US 72-70 on Monday. Tuesday Aruba bested Philippines 73-64 and Tortola clobbered Dominican Republic 106-51. An altercation occurred after the first game Tuesday resulting in the Philippines team being eliminated from the competition.
Admission is US $3. Action continues this evening as Tortola takes on Anguilla at 7:00pm and at 9:00pm St. Maarten tips off against Aruba. The final is slated for July 24.
