North American imports add to B.B.A. action
The league’s stars may increasingly hail from the streets of North America, but the quality of their play is drawing a growing number of Belizean fans. Last night was no exception as Janelle Chanona reports from courtside at the Belize City Centre.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
When players the of San Cas U.B. and the Corozal Kaus took the court on Wednesday night, both teams had something to prove. The north and their Georgia titans were still high off a four game winning streak while the Belize City crowd was anxiously ready to strike back with six feet ten inches of talent.
Minutes into play, U.B.’s Reggie Elliot lands a technical for a short shirt and the entire team decides to change uniform on the sideline… lucky for them, the sting of lost month’s locker room robbery means their bags are on hand…and everybody is back in white.
But Shand, the man in the middle, has Kaus seeing red with rebounds translating into easy turnovers and with several give-away throws like this one, U.B. gets a chance to run a slick pass and an impressive finish. Corozal’s runs into the Great Wall of Shand and its a ten point margin.
While Corozal showed life on the offence with Cadle’s three, down the line, it’s the long legs of Elliot again taking him to the rim uncontested.
U.B. would run a tight ship getting the ball from rim to rim quickly, leaving Corozal on the ground after the swish. Corozal tries to hustle, but Sebastian gets picked off giving U.B. the dunk. And again when Marcus Watkins loses the ball, poor number eleven is forced to watch Jeff Clifton do what he got to do.
But oh no, this lazy pass hands Clifton the ball again to rack up more frequent flier miles. At the half, it’s a 12-point deficit.
After the half time entertainment, U.B. says hey, size doesn’t matter, and hits another three early. Something just wasn’t jiving with Corozal as they just can’t seem to get past the U.B. squad and its another turnover…that big man Kevin Shand doesn’t waste, finishing in front of Shabba…oh yeah, he’s happy.
But Kaus gets revenge when Hood picks off the ball and sends it down to Eric Carr for a big hit. Seroki breaks speed limits to do his trademark look away pass in this game to Shand and Shabba tries to brake the move, but referee Glenn Gill objects. But U.B. interrupts Corozal’s flow again and its hang time again for Kevin Shand all over.
With 59, 46 on the board, Corozal draws the foul again, but Eric Carr can’t close the two and it’s up to Marcus Watkins and Kirk Smith to hustle, and they do. Check this out, it’s hot hands Lester Hood back? Yup. Corozal down only by 8.
But U.B. keeps leaving Hood alone and he makes them pay in threes. We don’t know if Hood was trying to do a through the legs pass or the ball slips, but the error gives U.B.’s Darren Bovell an over the back pass and Kenroy Smith says, it’s my turn to bring down the rim. (slips and falls) Whoops. Hardwood is mercilessly slippery when wet, as is the crowd at City Centre.
Shabba doesn’t even know what hits him when Ferrera steals the ball from behind and it’s Clinton Fuller on the rim.
We got to give props to Sebastian for a hard played game against some tough odds, when he gets stuck behind two U.B. blankets with no help. The ball would roll on the ground and its Jeff Clifton with another slam-dunk, nope its not getting old yet.
In the dying seconds of the time, Hood says it ain’t over till its over and still takes this three at the buzzer. But it doesn’t little to dull the pain of a 15-point margin at the end.
Brads Neal, Head Coach, San Cas U.B.
“We were the first team that Corozal beat with the new Corozal team, so we had a first hand experience to see how they played. I honestly must say that I felt we beat them the first time, but we just didn’t finish the game. But tonight we made sure we finished the game.”
Janelle Chanona
“So I saw a lot of slick plays during the games, some really fast passes. What that something you guys had worked on specifically during practice?”
Brads Neal
“We specifically worked on how to break the zone down. The Corozal Kaus team is an excellent team and they stay in the two, three zone because they’re a very big team. So they need the big guys to be around to dominate the rebound, block shots, so we specifically worked on it for a couple of weeks because we knew we had to play them. And I think we executed very well tonight.”
Janelle Chanona
“Kevin you are obviously the biggest man on the court, was it difficult to get in there and do what you had to do?”
Kevin Shand, San Cas U.B.
“It’s difficult because these referees are, it’s like…I don’t know, it’s just difficult because they’re not making the right calls as far as I’m concerned.”
Janelle Chanona
“Are they frustrating your game?”
Kevin Shand
“Yeah, because you can’t get into no flow because as soon as you’re in there… I mean there were two fouls, so you can’t get into no flow or nothing.”
Janelle Chanona
“You think they’re using your size against you then?”
Kevin Shand
“Basically.”
Janelle Chanona
“So what are you gonna do next time to shut down that aspect of it?
Kevin Shand
“You know what, I’m just here to play basketball and that’s what I’m gonna do, play ball.”
Janelle Chanona
“Kirk, you guys just come off a four game winning streak, but San Cas kinda shut you down here tonight. What are you going to be doing the next game?”
Kirk “Shabba” Smith
Well definitely we’re gonna work on the trap because I think that is the main thing that hurt us. They are pressing Marcus too much on the ball to bring it across the court and the other guys are not really getting it open. So that is one thing we gotta work on, take care of the ball because the lot of turnovers that we were making definitely hurt us down the stretch. Like I said, these guys got to be tougher with the ball.”
Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona.
Basketball action continues this Friday night with the Raiders facing Orange Walk Shell One Stop Music Centre in Sugar City. Game time is 8:00 p.m.
