Belizean Athletes Continue to Represent the Jewel Regionally in Volleyball and Basketball

But there is good news in volleyball and basketball. In Guatemala City today, the Under-twenty female national volleyball team beat El Salvador in three sets to one…that places Belize six points ahead and keeps the team in the running and within reach of a medal. In today’s came Kevanna Sebastian led team Belize with twenty-points and Maya Musa had ten points. On Wednesday, the selection plays against Guatemala at seven p.m. So you would want to keep following the game. Now in basketball news, four athletes left last Friday to compete on the international stage…and have come back with respectable showings. The national Under-eighteen three-by-three basketball team participated in the FIBA Americas Championship held this weekend in Washington D.C. The event featured teams from Canada, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Venezuela, and the USA in the men’s tournament. Belize didn’t clinch any medals, but it placed fourth in the competition. News Five spoke with coach, Matthew Smiling about the team’s performance in the games.

Matthew Smiling, Coach, U-18 National Basketball Team

Matthew Smiling

“The first day we played three games against U.S.A., U.S. Virgin Islands and Canada. I think we were a bit tired because we got in—not to make any excuse—but we got in like eleven-thirty. After checking in, we didn’t go sleep until about two…where we lost by two—fourteen-twelve—and then we played U.S.A. and we were dominated in that third game. The second day, we were well rested and we came out, we beat Puerto Rico and Guatemala and that put us in the medal round—the top four…speaking to some of the coaches over there and explaining to them what we have and what we go through there, they smile and wonder how I do it or how we as a team does it because going up against U.S.A. that won, the millions of dollars that they spend in their youth programs is second to none. And it seems because we met a couple of the guys in Spain that was on that said team that we played over the weekend and they were bigger and stronger and better than when we saw them in Spain. And talking to the coach, the extensive work that they have been putting in over the year has showed off in the tournament….yes especially U.S.A. and Canada; they knew us because Canada played against us in the World Championships and U.S.A., they were watching us also so they knew us. In both games I think they overpowered our point guard which was much smaller than them and they matched us speed to speed, but we really gave the other teams a problem with our speed…especially U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico….beside putting in more work, the semifinal game against U.S. gave us a lot of confidence; that game we were into the game.”