7 News Belize

Friday Night’s Recap: Belize Dominates Venezuela
posted (July 5, 2010)
So the Belize team is without its leading scorer and waiting for the always outstanding Darwin Carter to step in and take up some of the slack. That means that the team that we saw perform on Friday night in the second game of a friendly series against Venezuela is pretty much the team that played today in Trinidad.

And while they did not dominate the Trinidadians - they did do so to the highly regarded Venezuelans on Friday night - who, to be fair, were playing their third game in three nights. Still, for team Belize, a win's a win and here's how they did it on Friday night.

Jules Vasquez, Reporting
The Belize team came out determined to redeem themselves in front of the home crowd after the previous night's loss by 6 points. Alex Carcamo set the tone early with this drive into the paint. And two possessions later, Milton Palacio split the screen for this finger-roll. And on the next possession Palacio and Sonny Watson worked the screen roll to perfection for this dunk in the paint.

Two possessions later it was Charlie burgess driving into the paint for this dish to big man Sonny Watson again Alex Carcamo continued the assault on the paint. And while the Venezuelans tried to outsize the smaller Belizean team in the paint - help defence came to solve that with the energetic starts, Belize had an early 19 to 7 lead.

Charlie Burgess blew past the Venezuelan defenders on their toes - who were a step behind the whole night. And at the end of the quarter it was 27 to 9. The onslaught continued in the second quarter with this drive and dish from Palacio to Darwin Puppy Leslie swelling the lead to 26 points.

Venezuela did make a run on this nice spin move by guard Rafael Perez and this putback by Hector Romero which brought the lead down to 12 at the half In the second half Venezuelans started to show their frustration with hard fouls and hard fought box-outs - this one almost leading to a boxing match!

The Venezuelans were showing something like road rage. But when the game got back to normal Richard Troyer was undaunted, instead of settling for the jump shot he took it to the rim Belize kept a 20 point lead going into the fourth quarter it was easy going in the fourth quarter for Milton Palacio on this lay-up and as Belize ran away with the lead on this layup for Alex Caracmo. Even Superman Keith Acosta got in on it with this no look dish to Puppy Leslie and the fans were roused even for a layup from Acosta. The game ended with Belize blowing out the Venezuelans - in a real crowd pleaser

Charlie Burgess
"That's like the biggest thing especially to put a smile on our country's face and then especially my parents, my aunt, I got my grand aunt here, aunt Elsie, aunt Barbara, I got Lisa Lou, I got all my family down in Yabra. I got all of them. I just love it for them to be out here, be proud to actually watch a game and then rout for the country and for someone in their family. The bloodline is so strong; I just love everybody out here. I am just happy right now. At least we got this win. It prepares us for Monday."

Darwin Puppy Leslie
"My role is to play and bring energy off the bench no matter which way it goes it because Gene Myvette unfortunately got hurt. I just try pick up his role, defensive, and keep it going. Like I said I have a role on the team, I just have to know my role and go out and execute my role and don't put too much pressure on myself."

Jules Vasquez
"What did you see this evening that you felt encouraged by?"

Marques Johnson, Coach
"The toughness of this team. Last night's game Venezuela kind of set the tough tone; they were more physical than us. Tonight I just try not to let our guys get complacent with the big lead and they continue to fight an then Keenan Jourdan and Leon Watson who played with a lot of injuries said they wouldn't going to play. I said give me 5 minutes and he gave me much more than that tonight. We came through and combated through toughness with our toughness and you can see the outcome."

Jules Vasquez
"Heading into the DR (Dominican Republic), you feel confident that you can somehow make this work?"

Marques Johnson
"Well we will make it work now; the results are up to kind of how the guys come out. A lot of it has to do with us as staff being able to mix up the defences like we did tonight trying to keep the team balanced. Kind of use every trick in the book, we call it "throwing the kitchen sink" at somebody we are going to have to use that type of philosophy I think defensively and then offensively I feel very good, We've got good shooters, we got a great point guard Milton Palacio."

Milton Palacio, Guard
"You know it's always good playing in front of your fans, your family and everything so I know we were going to come back tonight and win this game. Last night was just a little different, the guys were nervous but it was good."

Jules Vasquez
"So what's your overall feeling about the chemistry on the team, the cohesiveness?"

Milton Palacio
"I think it was better tonight. I was just trying to control the whole game, I think it was better. We're going to be alright in DR."

Jules Vasquez
"What was your inspiration tonight?"

Alex Carcamo, Forward
"Milt getting on me yesterday telling me that I wasn't looking for my shot. I told him that the ball was slippery, he said he don't want to hear that, no excuses just come out and play so I had to come out and play tonight. Venezuela is a tough team and when we got that lead they tried to be more physical and we came in at half time and we said you know what we are going to be just as physical and if the referee is going to call it they going to call it both ways. We just want Venezuela know we weren't going to back down. We going to come out every night and play like this, like the way we played tonight, not the way we played last night."

Keith Acosta
"We feel like we have something to prove, firstly they never wanted us in this tournament so we feel that we have to go and prove something to them that we belong here and so that's our intent and we are very excited about going out there and we are looking forward for the challenge, it's going to be a tough one ahead."

As you heard in the story, the players were waiting for the addition of Marlon Garnett to the roster to open up the offense, and we now know, that won't be happening.

But Darwin Carter, while he is not a long range shooter like Garnett, he is a prolific scorer and his addition to the team is expected to provide a much needed offensive boost against Mexico. But it'll be a tight fit because Carter is scheduled to arrive in the Dominican Republic just two hours before game time tomorrow.

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize