Belize coach: “Barbados officials have no balls”
Good evening I’m James Adderly and you’re just in time for this big time version of Sports Monday. “We were robbed” is the prevailing view of the Belizean public after watching the semifinal showdown between Belize and the host team Barbados Friday night in the 15th CARICOM Basketball Championship. Nevertheless lets take it from the top.
And here we are getting ready for the outing that would put us into the gold medal game against the U.S. Virgin Islands already waiting in the wings. Paced by Keith Acosta, Belize gets off to a fast start and here Acosta knocks down the perimeter jumper. Dwight Myvette comes out on fire cutting to the top of the key to drop in a bucket as Belize takes the early lead.
Barbados is down by eight when number 15 Andrew Ali muscles his way in for two points plus picks up the foul – he would miss the free throw. It’s more Barbados when Nigel Lloyd goes to the bank cutting the deficit to four.
Downcourt Clinton Fuller replies for Belize, using the quick step to go glass for two. With Belize up by six, watch what happens to Keith Acosta as he gets clotheslined and sandwiched–he gets no call–this is the aftermath and mercifully Keith would return to the ballgame. Down by two, Belize gets Bart Sanchez who threads the needle to Alex Carcamo who delivers against the half the ballgame is knotted at 34 points apiece.
In the second half Belize comes out running – Dwight Myvette deals to Keith Acosta who goes backdoor and hits with the reverse. It’s second half play that Kirk Smith goes to the left hand and he would sink three just like these. This time downcourt, Kirk Smith does the reverse, goes to the right hand and its good for two.
Now tell me folks, isn’t this a foul on Myvette – the referees obviously don’t think so, there’s no call. For sure Belize falls down on defense when Mario Lane catches up with this long pass, which he mashes home with emphasis, but Barbados is still down by nine. This smash ignites a run by the host team that ends when Alex Carcamo spins for two.
However the Barbados team answers with this big three from Eswith and the lead is cut to two. Barbados takes a four-point lead when Eswith again connects for three and now its crunch time. With 4:40 to go it’s a six points Barbados lead, but Belize would cut it to three from the free throw line.
It’s getting late, so Kirk “Shabba” Smith goes to the left hand and hits the shot, gets fouled and would make it a one point deficit for Belize with 1:20 to go. Now here comes what we call highway robbery this two point lead for Barbados, 71-69 when Ali misses the second of two shots – According to the FIBA rules, under which the CARICOM games are played, the clock begins only when the ball is touched by a player.
Kirk gets the rebound; lets count the seconds and listen to the call from the Barbadian commentators:
Barbadian Commentators
“The shot is up, it goes. We have extra time here. It doesn’t go Barbados has won the ballgame!
Yes we have extra time, but of course, you heard, it doesn’t happen, there’s a change of decision, there’s a change of heart.
Here is the Barbadian view of this particular incident.
Barbadian, Sportscaster
“6.2 seconds were left after Andrew Ali missed that free throw you saw over there. Dwight Myvette, he got the ball, he went down the court and he was hounded. He did not have a clear path to the basket. He got into the pace, he took a running shot, it bounced around, and it fell in. Now the question is, was the shot released before or after that 6.2 seconds expired? The Barbadians, well they thought that the ball was still in his hands. The Belizeans, they thought the ballgame was tied and they would have five more minutes in which to pull off a victory and get into the second consecutive final. The referees, they conferred, they reviewed it. The technical director, he is from the Cayman Islands, he said the ball was still in the hands of the player when the time expired. The problem last night was the buzzer that makes a loud sound when the clock expired, that did not keep the noise that it normally did. As you can imagine, a huge crowd is in here, the noise level was extremely high and the referees, indeed the players did not hear the buzzer.”
The Barbados assistant coach tried to spin this miscarriage of justice his way.
Barbados Assistant Coach
“We all knew that the time had expired before he took the shot. So it wasn’t… I didn’t really feel any… I just think that it would have worked out anyway, that someone would be able to tell them that the time was expired.”
With tempers rising, only Bart Sanchez agreed to talk to the press.
Bart Sanchez, Belize National Team
“We played our hearts out and for the game to have ended like that. All of a sudden the buzzer isn’t working, I don’t know what went wrong with the buzzer, but the shot was good. The people saw it, but the Barbadian fans won’t say that it counted.”
Barbadian Commentator #1
“So do you feel cheated? You think that the game really should have gone the extra time? Do you think that you would have won the game in the extra time? “
Bart Sanchez
“Yeah! We would have won, those guys were exhausted.”
Assistant coach Dutch Belnap didn’t pull any punches.
Dutch Belnap, Belize Assistant Coach
“I’ve been in this for thirty-two years and I’ve never see anything like this in my life. They should have given Barbados the trophy before the tournament. Everything has gone wrong and we been hammered and that was the worst call that I’ve seen. The officials came over and told us the basket was good. They said the basket was good. We had 6.5 seconds to take the ball from there, I can dribble around both ends at that and laid it in and he said the basket’s good and the table waved it off.”
Barbadian Commentator #1
“You’re saying that there was 6.5 seconds on the clock, but the players, who was Myvette, he was not alone he was hounded by the guys…”
Dutch Belnap
“Oh, I understand, but the ball was out of his hands regardless. Now what did you see?”
Barbadian Commentator #1
“I saw it extremely close, I must tell you.”
Dutch Belnap
“Close? It can’t be close. I must be one way or the other.”
Barbadian Commentator #1
“Well I must be impartial and I’m saying that I saw the shot, it went off. If it was called good, I would have no complaint. If it was called late, again I don’t think I would complain.”
Barbadian Commentator #2
“It was a tough game wasn’t it?”
Dutch Belnap
“Oh, it was a terrible game because Kirk Smith got killed out there and nothing! On that last series, he got knocked to the floor and stripped and they called nothing.”
Barbadian Commentator #1
“But basketball at all levels of course, we’d like to see the players decide, and not the officials. You can hardly find referees anywhere in the world without some of those faults.”
Dutch Belnap
“You don’t choke in those situations.”
Barbadian Commentator #1
“So you’re saying the referees choked in your opinion?”
Dutch Belnap
“Oh, no question. I’ve been around this thirty-two years and that’s the biggest choke job I’ve seen.”
Barbadian Commentator #1
“So perhaps the fans, the home crowd may have affected the referee?”
Dutch Belnap
“Well, we should be playing in overtime right now. These people want it so bad, they’re talking during our shooting, they’re talking, they’re waving towels down there, they’re throwing balls on the floor. The officials have no balls; they couldn’t control it. They have no balls.”
Well we were robbed of the gold, but it was a dejected Belize team that lost the bronze medal to Guyana in a blowout. The team comes home today and certainly we want to thank all of them for representing Belize in such an impressive fashion.