3X3 Basketballers doing well in Spain

The president of the Belize Basketball Federation, Paul Thompson, spoke to News Five last Tuesday when they were short on funds to send the Under Eighteen three by three basketball team to the World Championships being held this week. Well, the team made it to Spain and the games got underway on Thursday. By this morning, the team was making impressive gains in the tournament. According to a report on the FIBA website, “Belize turned quite a few heads as they beat Poland and China and came close to handing the Canadians their first loss in Group A.” It is the first time that a Central American team is participating in the tournament and as one of the smallest teams, the athletes are proud of their performance so far. One of the players, Brian White, told FIBA that while it’s fun, it is also very competitive and they are playing hard to win. The games continue on Saturday, when the thirty-two teams will play the last of their group games. The teams that top their groups will then qualify for Sunday’s Quarter-Finals while those who finish second and third will advance to the Eight-Finals.