B.B.F. discusses how national team can defeat Puerto Rico
The Belize National Basketball Team tossed a monkey wrench in Cuba’s plan to dominate the 2010 CentroBasket Tournament in a historic win on Thursday. But despite its current standings of two wins and one loss, Belize still has to beat Puerto Rico to be guaranteed the top spot in group B of the games in Santo Domingo. Belize’s upset of the Cuban powerhouse came with a sixteen point victory of ninety-four to seventy-eight after suffering a massive loss to Mexico on Tuesday. Alex Carcamo was the top scorer with twenty-three points while Richard Troyer came closely behind with twenty-one. So what’s next for the local boys? Belize Basketball Federation Executive, Brads Neal, outlines what the team needs to do in order defeat Puerto Rico and advance to the final round of the championship.
Brads Neal, Executive, Belize National Basketball Team
brads neal
“The situation is that we might be in the lead right now, according to the FIBA website. But in reality there’s two games today that are being played and the first game we had Mexico beating Trinidad and Tobago by a twenty-three point differential. That don’t really leave us in the lead; Mexico is pretty much in the lead, according to the way it’s being calculated by FIBA. The game being played right now, Puerto Rico versus Cuba, the outcome of the game is going to be huge again, being that we have one game remaining against Puerto Rico. But it can be very confusing. The win/loss situation in our bracket is very funny because every team has a loss and with only four games to play it’s gonna be pretty difficult to sort out until the games are played. But the one thing that we have is that we control our destiny. The team that wins three games in our bracket automatically takes the number one seat and then the remaining is going to be based on the point differential system with the two games win and two games lost scenario.”
William Neal
“So if Belize wins tomorrow they definitely move on.”
Brads Neal
“That is exactly what the scenario—that’s the best case scenario for us. If we win we have the number one seat, if we lose then there’s a whole lot of win/loss situation with the two and two brackets within the brackets.”
William Neal
“And what is the point differential that you mention? Just break it down a little; you add, you minus?”
Brads Neal
“The points differential is based upon how many points you win by and how many points you lose by. So it’s a very complicated situation. So I guess we leave that until the games are played and in the end we’ll determine if we advance based upon the win/loss situation.”
William Neal
“And what do you think about Belize’s chances against Puerto Rico as you look at the game?”
Brads Neal
“Great! We have a great chance against Puerto Rico. We have to suit up, strap up against them and win the game tomorrow.”
