The William Dawson Sprite/Digi Basketball Playoff Action
Goodnight and welcome to another edition of Sports Monday, I am Paul Lopez. The greatest glory in living lies not in never failing, but in rising every time we fall”. That’s a quote from former Activist and Politician, Nelson Mandela. The organizers of the William Dawson Sprite/Digi Basketball Tournament deserve to be commended for the bold effort in bringing together youths from across the district on the basketball court. After months of competition the tournament is at the finals. The degree of gameplay made it difficult for any team to get to this point, and on Saturday that fierce spirit was on full display during the semi-finals in Port Loyola Park. The winning teams advanced to the champion games and the losing teams will play for third.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
The first match of the day saw Third World Ballers take on defending champion Hard Rock Boys. At the tip-off, Third World Ballers in the yellow jerseys, take control of the ball. Multiple attempts made at the rim, the ball is dished out and passed around to find the two-point jump shot. Hard Rock Ballers’ Marcel “Man From Mars” Richards brings down the ball. He passes it off; Earl “Bolo” Johnson gets it inside and makes it count. Third World Ballers in possession, number one, Kyle Humes, finds Theodore Andrews, but Andrews is unable to finish. Richards sends it cross court to Travis “Turbo” Bernardez who quickly releases to Johnson for the layup.
Here is Richards again with the pass to Bernardez and he executes the same play on the other end of the court, this time to Joseph Sutherland. Tafaree, Sanchez for Third World Ballers, loses the ball at half court, picked up by Richard, Bernardez and Johnson with the one-two combo. The first quarter ended with Hard Rock Boys up twenty –three points to Third World Ballers’ five points. In the second quarter, Third World Ballers scored fifteen more points to give them twenty going into the second half. Hard Rock Boys entered the second half with thirty-five points. At the top of the third, Joseph Sutherland with the bounce pass to Kyle Humes under the rim. Humes goes up, gets the basket and a foul. Richards throws the ball in to Kevin Hamilton, back to Richardson who finds Johnson at the three point line. That is money.
This one ended with fifty-nine points for the defending champions and forty for Third World Ballers. Hard Rock Boys are going to the finals. In the second matchup of the day, Unruly Boyz went up against Port Loyola Titans. The Titans were of course playing this one on their home court. The Titans win the tipoff. Gabriel Taylor finds Nelson “Cacky” Tablada open at the three point line. Tablada goes up and starts the game with a three-point shot. Titans up with five points, ball to Taylor, he dishes it out to John Kelly. Kelly from the three-point line and he gets it. Titans now up by six points, Taylor with the deep pass to Tablada who catches the ball in the air and puts it in without touching the ground. Port Loyola Titans ended the first quarter with a ten point lead.
In the second quarter, Titans change their starting players. Unruly Boyz’ D’Andre Arana finds Shaqueem Valerio inside, who muscles his way to the basket. Shemar “Dread Curry” Thomas gets the turnover. He tosses it up to the rim for Ayden Casimiro who almost gets the dunk, but the basket is good. Unruly Boyz inbound the ball to Raheem Thurton. Hubert Baptist goes to work, pulls up and scores that nineteenth point to Titans’ twenty-eight. Taylor finds Tablada. He dribbles past Baptist, puts it behind the back and goes up to finish the play and make the basket. The second quarter ended with Unruly Boyz trailing by seven points. They were able to cut that lead down to five points at the end of the third. Unruly Boyz are now only trailing by three points in the fourth. Baptist gets the pass on the other end and goes up to make it a one-point ball game.
Taylor, Tablada goes up and extends the lead. Thurton at the three-point line, he is unable to finish the play but Marcus Ifield is there to clean up. Baptist is fouled and goes to the free throw line where he makes good on both free throws to give his team their first lead of the match. Here is where things really get heated. With less than two minutes in the ballgame and down by four points. Thurton gets the rebound. He works to maintain control, spots up at the far right corner and banks the three-pointer to cut his opponent’s lead to one. With nine seconds to go, Titans are in the lead by two points. They inbound the ball and that’s a turnover. Baptist takes control and makes the layup to tie the game with three seconds left on the clock.
The ball is thrown in to Taylor, but he is called for stepping out of bounds. Two seconds on the clock in this tied ball game. Arana to Thurton, he goes up and makes it. But did he beat the buzzer? Unruly Boyz began celebrating, but a slow motion replay of the shot reveals that the ball was still in his hand when the buzzer went off. Tablada would lead the Titans to victory in overtime with back-to-back three pointers. On Saturday, the Titans will take on defending champions Hard Rock Boyz for the 2023 title.
From basketball, we take you to some football action. On Friday Belize’s National Senior Men’s Football Team took on Bermuda in Belmopan. After ninety minutes of play time, Bermuda came out on top. Seventeen minutes into the game, Bermuda’s Kane Crichlow fired this rocket from outside the penalty box and it goes into the net. That was the lone-goal of the match. Team Belize is currently in Bermuda hoping to secure a victory, as it has fallen to the bottom of the standings in its group.
And from football, we move over to some softball highlights. The Belize Softball Association held its inaugural Inter-Association All-Star Classic inside the Raymond Garbutt Softball Stadium in the Cayo District. The tournament saw all-star teams from the Belize, Cayo and Orange Walk districts. The championship match was between Belize City All-Stars and Cayo All-Stars. There has been a longstanding softball rivalry between the two districts. Belize City displayed dominance, finishing the game with fourteen runs, to Cayo’s seven runs. Shadalee Ho received the Best Pitcher of the Tournament Award.
Voice of Shadalee Ho, Best Pitcher, Softball All-Star Tournament
“This game today was a hard game. The teams were good but it was hot, really hot. That was a big factor for everybody. The team is a good team, a lot of younger players on the team. So it was an experience and I hope unu continue this competition.”
Well folks, that is all we have for you in tonight’s coverage of Sports Monday. Catch you in the next one.
