This Weekend in Sports, BEBL and William Dawson Peace Cup

Goodnight and welcome to another edition of Sports Monday, I am Paul Lopez. We begin tonight’s coverage with highlights from this weekend’s Belize Elite Basketball League matchup. On Friday night, the Belize City Defenders took on the Belmopan Trojans inside the Belize City Civic Center. After losing two games back-to-back, the Defenders had something to prove. And they did just that in this game against the youngest team in the league. The Defenders came out on top with one hundred and seven points, while the Trojans secured seventy-one points.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

Man of the match goes to the Defenders’ Forward Fenton Bradley. He finished with twenty-five points, four of five from the three-point line, an efficient seventy-six percent field goal percentage, seven rebounds and four assists. And of course, former league MVP, Nigel Jones made significant contributions to the game. Jones scored a total of twenty points. He snatched up fifteen rebounds, twelve of which were defensive rebounds. Jones was less efficient from the three-point line this time around but overall had a fifty-three percent field goal percentage. We also saw big double-digit contributions from Captain Devin Daly, Andrew Ortiz, Lorenzo Dillard and Devon Campbell.

 

For the Belmopan Trojans, Jayden Lopez continues to impress. He finished with twenty-one points, eight of seventeen from the field and seventy-one percent from the field. Eyes must be kept on this player. With seven games played, the Belize City Defenders now sits on top of the league’s standing. But that can all change in one weekend. Also on Friday night, the Cayo Western Ballaz played its first game under a new head coach, Bernie Tarr. It was a nail-biting overtime game inside the Sacred Heart Auditorium between the Ballaz and the Dangriga Dream Ballers. However, that one finished in favour of Dream Ballers, eighty-seven to eighty-three points. But the big question here is why, the former head coach for Cayo Western Ballaz, Karim Juan, resigned. Well, we spoke directly with Juan and here is what he told us.

 

Karim Juan, Former Head Coach, Cayo Western Ballaz

“As a coach I became frustrated with the structure of the league at this time. I felt that the league, I feel that the league is still predominantly influenced by certain teams in the league and that all teams and rules are not fairly executed. So, there were a few incidents I thought were unfair. Because of those issues as a coach, I felt I was participating in a league that in the roughest of terms, a league that is rigged, so I decided to simply step away. In regard to the direct incident in Belmopan, me personally as a coach and I am not in no way representing Western Ballaz, me as a coach felt that a particular referee in that game was intentionally making calls to ensure my team did not win. I could challenge anybody to watch the video, to go and see how many calls were made by that referee and to see how many fouls were against my team. So, no matter what we did we would not have won that game. So, I felt as a basketball coach at that time that the actions of that referee were way more obtuse than me throwing a chair in protest at the end of that game. That was another issue that further encouraged me to step away. We are running our top basketball league without any trained referees in Belize. So, the basketball referee association is not officiating our games. What the league has done in the third week, they have been scraping up any referee that has a whistle and putting them at the court. I find that to be beyond unacceptable.”

 

We reached out to BEBL Commissioner Glenn Gill who contended that the league has referees from the association and certified Guatemalan referees assisting.

 

From basketball, we move into some football action in the Willam Dawson Peace Cup. This weekend was retribution weekend, and he brings you highlights from the match between Port Loyola FC and Hattieville United. The teams lined up just before the start of the game. The referee gave the starting players a brief reminder of how the game would run as he sought to ensure that match would go incident free. The guys then paid their respects to each other, before the starting whistle was blown. Early in the game, Port Loyola FC tries to convert a corner kick into a goal with eight Hattieville defenders inside the penalty box. Each of Port Loyola’s offenders got a crack at the goal attempt, but ultimately the defense proved successful.

 

On the other end of the field, Hattieville United, also with a corner kick sought to put the first goal of the match on the score board. Every attempt to get the ball to the goal was countered by a defender on the prowl. The play ended with a wild shot from center field that completely missed the target. Here at the start of the second half, number two for Port Loyola FC is rewarded with a free kick just outside the penalty box. He swings the ball around the wall, but it is an easy stop for Hattieville’s goalkeeper. And this is the one and only goal scored in this match, off a header from midfield, Kenyon Lewis finds the opening and puts it in. Port Loyola FC won that game, one goal to zero. Lewis was named the man of the match.

 

Well Folks, that is all we have for you in tonight’s coverage of Sports Monday. Catch you in the next one.