Bermuda?s only basketball pro Sullivan Phillips played his first game on home soil on Saturday night, and showed exactly why he won tournament MVP in the gold-medal winning Island Games tournament last month.

Phillips and his team put on a show for the sell-out crowd at CedarBridge Academy, putting in a hard-working performance in their 88-82 exhibition defeat by a team of current and former NBA players.

Phillips, coming off an MVP season with UK champions London Towers, scored 16 points for his national team, who led 25-23 after the first quarter, in an inspired performance against the collection of overseas giants that formed the SportsPower Pro International team.

Comfortably the star for the visitors was NBA veteran Carlos Rogers, the 6ft 11ins former Trailblazer, Pacer, Raptor and Rocket, who picked up 36 unstoppable points against a defence that could do nothing about his superior height, experience and skills.

But the Bermuda side were far from disgraced against their opponents, who included college prospect Willie Jenkins, former Boston Celtic Byron Moulton as well as current Washington Wizard Laron Profit.

Though they couldn?t match the height of their opponents, hard work, teamwork and a desire to please the 400 partisan spectators helped bridge some of the gaps in class and experience, though victory was never looking likely once the second quarter got underway and the pros began to read each other?s games better.

Although Phillips was the star of the show, hoops fans who rarely get to watch the national team play would have been impressed with the skilful Gram Robinson, the effervescence of Steven Simons and the commitment of skipper Dale Jackson.

?It was great to play here for the first time,? said Phillips, who is as soft-spoken off the court as he is powerful when driving to the basket on it.

?I thought we played pretty well. These guys are obviously skilful and there is not a lot we could have done about their height, but it was a good test for us.

?It was very different from the Island Game stuff. That was an incredible tournament for Bermuda but this was something else, a taste of how good guys can be.?

The heat in the school gym made things difficult for both teams with the game descending into scrappy periods in every quarter with defence going out the window and more three-pointers attempted than usual as the dashes onto the paint were somewhat limited.

The Bermudians were particularly impressive shooting from distance, comfortably matching their opponents from three-point land, particularly in the first half.

But whatever the home team did, and they hustled and harried as hard as they could to upset the rhythm of their opponents, baskets always came too easily for the visitors, particularly when Rogers had the ball.

He effortlessly reached up to tip or dunk the ball home, monstering whoever had the misfortune of covering him.

Despite outscoring every player on the court, he still played within himself, choosing to go alone infrequently enough not to spoil the game as a spectacle but enough to ensure that his side were always ahead after the opening ten minutes, 46-38 at the half and 73-64 after the third quarter.

Profit, the player currently performing at the highest level, was a star in the first half and would have added a lot to his 12 points after the break had he not taken over from former Globetrotter Melvin Adams at guard.

His incredible skill was also increasingly apparent as the game wore on, although he again chose to dish the ball around more than go for it himself.

Although Bermuda were defeated in this rare home performance, the display was spirited and talented enough to give the public confidence in their abilities.

But the big question hanging over them is ?when will they play again??

?It was a great performance by the guys tonight,? said coach Roderick Spencer, who led his team to a 2003 Island Games bronze before upgrading it to gold this year.

?They did well against some very strong opposition. But I don?t know what is next for us.

?I don?t know whether there is going to be a national team next week. Our goals were the Island Games and then being ready for this game, beyond that there is nothing on the horizon.

?I would like to see us attempt Pan-Am qualifying but without funding there is nothing that can be done.

?The journey has been fun for us ? I just hope we can still continue somehow.?