Belize robbed in CARICOM basketball

Barbadian Commentators

“The ball is in the air, he misses. This could be it here. They have the play…from Barbados. Three seconds, two seconds, the clock in running out. The shot is up, it goes and we have extra time here.”

But there was to be no extra time for Belize as officials at the desk overruled the on court referees to award the game to Barbados 71-69. The unbelievable result occurred on Friday night as Belize and Barbados squared off in the semifinal game of the CARICOM Basketball Championships. With most of the team now back in Belize a press conference was called by an obviously dejected, but still proud BNBA President Glenn Tillett.

Glenn Tillett, President BNBA

“We return to Belize disappointed because know that our opportunity to win the tournament, to win gold, was denied by the Barbadian tournament organizers who overruled a decision made by the referees, who arbitrated the game between Belize and Barbados on the 7th. With the clock running down, with 6.2 seconds on the clock, the Barbadians missed a free throw, which we rebounded. Our guard Dwight Myvette drove the length of the court and laid up the ball. Both referees on court called the shot good. After they did so, some players and some of the spectators had streamed onto the court and immediately the referees were hustled off the court into separate changing rooms. Immediately after they were hustled off the court, the chief desk official, a lady by the name of Mrs. Patricia McClou ordered the statistical crew, scorekeepers and timekeepers to disband their equipment and to leave the desk. The Barbados team for their part also left the court and returned to their locker rooms and shortly after, left the stadium. About fifteen minutes after the referees were hustled off the court, they managed to get together in a conference with the desk official from the Cayman Islands and they told him that their decision was that the basket was good. His name I believe was Sanje Ranju from the Cayman Islands, Randy Sanju from the Cayman Islands came back on the court and signaled that the basket was good and that the game should continue. While he was doing that, Mrs. McClou had intercepted the two referees, I think the guys names were Selville Tinto from Trinidad and Tony Williams from the Bahamas, taken them back tot he dressing room, where she informed them that it was her observation that the clock had expired before the shot was good. She also brought in the timekeeper who also told the referees that it was his observation that time had expired before the shot was taken. They apparently did not reply to her except to tell her that they did not disagree with her observation since it was her home and she took this to mean that they agreed with her. So she went outside and had the public address announcer announce over the public address system that the game had finished and that the final score was Barbados 71 and Belize 69.”