Portland Trailblazers center Deandre Ayton was in a dominant mood on Saturday to help the Bahamas defeat Lebanon 89-72 and book their spot in the final of the Olympic Basketball Qualifying Tournament in Valencia, Spain.

The Bahamians jumped out to a 31-16 lead at the end of the first quarter before a tight second quarter meant the Caribbean nation enjoyed a 50-36 lead at halftime.

Lebanon had a much better defensive showing in the third quarter, holding the Bahamas to only 13 points while scoring 18 of their own to cut the deficit to 63-54 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Bahamas were back to their dominating best in the final stanza, however, winning 26-18 for a final score of 89-72.

Ayton, in his 32 minutes of action, went 11-15 from the field on his way to a top score of 24 points to go along with 15 rebounds.

Warriors guard Buddy Hield contributed 19 points while VJ Edgecombe and Eric Gordon had 13 points, each.

Sergio El Darwich had 22 points, five rebounds and three assists for Lebanon.

Their opponent in Sunday’s final will be the winner of the semi-final between Spain and Finland.

At the time of publishing, Spain were ahead 38-30 at halftime.

The Bahamas will look to move one step closer to their dream of competing in Basketball at the Paris Olympics this summer when they tackle Lebanon in the semi-finals of Olympic Basketball Qualifying Tournament 1 in Valencia, Spain on Saturday.

The other semi-final will see hosts Spain taking on Finland, who the Bahamians defeated in the group stage.

The winner of the tournament will advance to the Paris Olympics.

The Bahamians booked their spot in the final four with a 90-81 win over Poland on Wednesday.

18-year-old Valdez “VJ” Edgecombe Jr, a projected top-5 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft who has committed to Baylor University, led the way with an efficient 21 points on 13 shot attempts. He also pulled in six rebounds and had one steal and one block.

Portland Trailblazers center Deandre Ayton was also solid with 18 points and nine rebounds while Eric Gordon missed just one of his six shot attempts on his way to 12 points.

San Antonio Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan had 16 points and 10 rebounds for Poland.

Lebanon booked their spot in the semis with a 74-70 win over Angola, also on Wednesday.

Former Villanova and Golden State Warriors big man Omari Spellman dominated with 22 points and 13 rebounds for Lebanon and will need to be given extra attention by the Bahamians on Saturday.

A national collective effort is currently ongoing to locate the whereabouts of Bahamian basketball player Zane Knowles, who has been stranded in Israel as the conflict between that country’s military and Palestinian group Hamas rages.

There have been thousand of casualties from both sides since the conflict erupted on Saturday after Hamas reportedly fired more than 3000 rockets into Israel killing hundreds of civilians.

The 31-year-old Knowles, who plays for Bulgarian professional team CSKA Sofia, was reportedly in Israel with the team with the conflict began. Since then, flights in and out of Israel have been grounded. According Eugene Horton, President of the Bahamas Basketball Federation, after the player declared himself safe early on in the conflict they have been unable to locate him in order to determine if his status has changed.

“One of the players had made contact on Instagram a few days ago and I think he had said he was safe at that time. Foreign affairs, government and the basketball community had been trying to touch base to make sure he’s good but have been unsuccessful so far,” Horton told Sportsmax.TV.

“We are not sure what’s going on. We’re following the news with the happenings over there but the main thing right now is to locate him, find out his circumstances and see how best we can assist in getting him to safety.”

Horton indicated that all the stakeholders in the Bahamas have been working together to try and locate the player and ensure his safety.

“Once we locate him, we will put an action plan together to get him home or to another country,” the BBF president said.

“We continue reaching out to national team coaches, players to see if anybody is getting any news of his whereabouts.”