Dominican Republic defeats Belize team in Cuba

Belize’s National Basketball Team was defeated in its first game in Havana, Cuba yesterday, but is hoping to gain some ground tonight in a game against the host team. Tuesday afternoon the defending champions of the Torneo CentroBasquet, the Dominican Republic beat Belize 69-52. A statement from the Belize Sports Council says Belize started out on a bright note with an early 13 to 10 lead, but by the end of the first half the score was 31-25 in favor of the Dominican Republic. And it was downhill from there despite the efforts of Lloyd Leslie who scored five straight points, closing the gap for a time. Fred Garcia scored the most points for the team with 10 points and 7 rebounds. Kirk “Shabba” Smith, Dwight Myvett and Alex Carcamo finished with 7 points each and Milton Palacio had 6. With this loss it is critical for Belize to win tonight’s game against Cuba. It is being played at 7:30 Belize time and will be aired live on Channel 5. Belize needs to be among the top three teams in the tournament to advance to an Olympics qualifying round.