Inter-Office Basketball League Finals Underway; King of the Hills Race Test Belizean Cyclists
Goodnight and welcome back to another edition of Sports Monday. I am Paul Lopez. Let’s jump right into it folks. The biggest basketball match of the year, to date, went down inside the Belize Civic on Friday night. It was all action and no-nonsense when Tuff eNuff clashed with Central Health/Customs in the first of three final matches. Both teams have their eyes set on that Inter-Office Basketball Championship ring and the right to be called the best of the best for 2022. This is four minutes into the third quarter, Kevin Hamilton drives to the rim, takes the hard foul and he gets the and-one. On the other end of the court, Glency Lopez was double teamed, leaving Nicholson open for the easy bucket. Big play here for Central Health, Nicholson attempted the three pointer, misses, Glency jumps out of frame to keep the ball alive, passes it to Michaels, who passes it right back to Lopez at the three point line, and he banks it, much to the crowd’s delight. Kevin Hamilton making light work of the assist from Arana, a bad play leads to a turnover on the other end of the court, Arana again to Hamilton, but a quick hustle from Lopez leads to the block. At the end of the third, Tuff eNuff was leading by six points. They would balloon that lead to thirteen points in the first four minutes in the fourth quarter, allowing Central Health/Customs to score only two points. And here again, with three defenders on him, Glency Lopez puts his body on the line for his team to make the layup. But, Tuff eNuff Captain Francis Arana quickly returned the favor with a three-point shot, a two-point basket for Michaels on the other end, and Kevin Hamilton with a little razzle dazzle around two defenders to the basket. The match ended at ninety-one to eighty points in favor of Tuff eNuff.
Francis Arana
Francis Arana, Tuff eNuff
“The whole team came with one mentality, to come and push hard from the start. You all see the odds. We came prepared for our suffering but it is not us that got our suffering tonight. We just came to play hard, we see the odd, we know that these guys came to play and we play hard.”
Paul Lopez
“One of the issues I saw in this game was fouls, there was a lot of fouls on both ends, a couple of your players got into foul trouble and one even fouled out.”
Francis Arana
“Like I tell my time, this is finals, we know this will be a high intensity game and the refs will try to keep the game in composed. So, we just have to work on it and try to foul less, put up our hands and try to contest the best as we could.”
Paul Lopez
“Coope, great game, a very upsetting defeat. Speak to us about what went wrong in this game.”
Glency “Coope” Lopez
Glency “Coope” Lopez, Central Health/Customs
“Well we never come out with fih we energy in the first place, we have to guh back and make up for the mistakes we made in this game. Like limit the turn over, score the second baskets, just defense.”
Tuff eNuff is now leading the series and has the edge going into the second game this Saturday inside the Belize Civic Center. Also, the coach of the year for the regular season has been determined and it is none other than Rico Black, coach for Team Tuff eNuff. Regular Season MVP goes to none other than his team captain Francis Arana, while Ewart Young from team BTL was awarded the Sportsmanship of the Year title.
And now for some cycling action, the long anticipated Gonz King of the Hills Race was finally held on Sunday morning. The route of the race was from Armenia Village to Santa Elena Town and back to Belmopan, which amounted to just over three hours of intense riding. And the race is off. The first station prize was taken by a rider for Team Gonz at the twin hills outside of Armenia Village. Entering Camalote Village, Edmund Camal of Team Fal was in the lead along with Mexican rider for Santinos, Gabriel Cardozo. At the Mount Hope climb, Cardozo was in the lead, until Jose Choto, Chris Waight and Tyler Tejeda launched an attack. Choto would ultimately claim the station prize on top of the hill. At the half-way mark, four riders were leading the race, with the main peloton right on their tails. On the return to Belmopan, in Camalote Village Running Rebel’s Tyron Green took the lead, until Sherwin Roca made an attack and took over, with two riders behind him. Leaving Roaring Creek Village into Belmopan, Tyron Green regained the lead and pressed forward, that is until Mexican rider Gabriel Cardozo overtook him and made a hard sprint directly to the finish line.
Tyron Green
Tyron Green, Running Rebels
“As yo sih the race dah mih wah hard race, going up ah mih the tek some lick because I tek long fih bruk mih first breath and after I just start to sit dwon een. And basically dah only three ah we ride because yesterday dah mih wah rough race, two ah wih man get injured. So, basically I mih the run and force the other teams fih chase. His legs mih the burn he coming in, because dah mih wah rough race.”
Santiago “Santino” Castillo Jr.
Santiago “Santino” Castillo Jr., Santinos Belize
“He said it is the first race he did here and the course was beautiful, nice hills. And he is surprised at the strength of the Belize riders. They rode very good, well attended race and the boys here are very strong.”
Let’s take a look now at some football action from the past weekend. The Football Federation of Belize is currently hosting the National Amateur Women League. This weekend saw the Cayo Dreamers face off against the Belize Coast Guard at the Marion Jones Stadium. The Belize Coast Guard’s women finished the match with a commanding four to zero victory over Cayo Dreamers, sending Cayo Dreamers back west with an upsetting defeat. That tournament is in its third week. In the Under-Thirteen Girls Competition, Cayo Girls went up against Corozal Girls. Now, this matchup went in favor of team Cayo, as they defeated the Corozal Girls three to zero. That tournament is in its fifth week. And, that’s all we have for you this week folks, until next time, goodnight.
