After Belize delivered its best performance ever, winning silver in the U-19 Central American Female Volleyball Championships a week ago, could there be another regional win on the horizon, this time in Basketball?

The Belize Basketball Federation continues to make history, by hosting the country's first ever FIBA U-17 Centrobasket Championship. Teams from 8 different countries are competing in a series of games where only 3 will qualify and advance to the U18 Americas Championship. We stopped by the Civic Center today and caught a glimpse of workouts in preparation towards tonight's game, where Belize will face off against Jamaica.

Day one of the U-17 Centrobasket Championship commenced yesterday, where Belize beat Panama 67-78. It's the first time that Belize is hosting and participating in the tournament organized by FIBA, and they are off to a bright start, with top performer Douglas Langford scoring 28 points. Will the team be able to deliver another win tonight? President of the Belize Basketball Federation Jacob Leslie told us that they are more than prepared. --

Jacob Leslie, President, Belize Basketball Federation
"Well this is the U-17 Fiba CentroBasket Championship, there are 8 teams participating and they are divided into 2 brackets. Belize is in the bracket with Jamaica, Panama, and Puerto Rico, and then you have the other bracket with Dominican Republic , Mexico, El Salvador and Costa Rica. So right now we are playing in the group phase, so you play all the teams in your bracket, then the top two teams from each bracket advance to the medal round."

"Belize kids have been preparing from last year, because the tournament was actually supposed to be held last year but it was postponed due to scheduling conflict with FIBA. so majority of these players have been together, have been training working together so we have a good group of guys that have been working for over a year and we had our first game last night and I thought the country had a glimpse of what we can do, I think there is much more that we can do to play at our best."

"But again it's a very important game for us tonight, if we win tonight we guarantee our place in the medal round and so we want the Belizean people to come out and support this team, they will need everyone in here to let them know that we are with them. And if we win we'll take Belize to the medal round which is a place we have never been."

Elijah Favela, Point Guard
"I feel absolutely honored to be here and the outcome should be nothing more than a gold medal for this tournament."

Reporter:
"And how are you feeling about tonight's game? and well last nights game as well? You're going up against Jamaica, how are you feeling?"

Elijah Favela, Point Guard
"I was super excited for the win last night but we have to get our minds focused on tonight, so i'm just really excited and just hope we come out with a win today."

Douglas Langford, Center Position
"It's very exciting, it's all fun, you know love, you know support, it's nothing but the best feeling in the world to have everyone come out and support and building a relationship with these guys behind me." Reporter:
"How was last night's game for you? And are you prepared for Jamaica tonight?"

Douglas Langford, Center Position
"Yes im prepared, last night was game you know I think we got that one out the way it was all nerves, that's how we played, how we play I mean we still got the win but we just got to limit some things. I feel like we are very prepared and we are ready for Jamaica."

And while the Belize team is putting in the work and sweat towards a win, Jamaica is just as determined to beat the odds, despite losing 5 players in the last 48 hours before they came to Belize.

Wayne Dawkins, Jamaica, Head Coach
"It's been great, the opportunity to be here in another country and to experience a game at this level and play in front of the world , representing our country, is huge. We are excited. As far as what to expect from us you know we are a young team inexperienced we came here with seven 15 year olds so for us it's more were playing the long game we are trying to mature our group and get them experienced and improve them over the course of the tournament as opposed to jump out and shock the world on day one. So you know we are here to get better everyday and i feel like we will end a lot stronger than we started."

"We only had about 8 weeks to prepare and we had an unfortunate situation where we lost 5 players 48 hours before we left. They couldn't get the Visas to travel through the US. our team was gutted and you know we had to bring in some reserves and a lot of our good preparation was lost by losing half our team but im not using that as an excuse but unfortunately it's going to affect us having to gel a new group while here in Belize but other than that we have been going really hard to the best of our ability we do have a mixed group of international players, International Jamaican players and local Jamaican players so it was a little bit of a challenge to get everybody together."

Marcus McDonald, Jamaica, Point Guard
"It's a great experience. This is my second time playing in this tournament, I played in the one in 2021, and it's just great to be out here with my team and just represent our country."

Reporter:
"And do you think you are ready for tonight's game against Belize?"

Marcus McDonald, Jamaica, Point Guard
"Yeah of course we are all ready"

Ahmad Torrence, Jamaica, Guard
"This is my first time obviously playing in a tournament I feel good honestly, we had a tough lost last night but we are going to bounce back."

Reporter:
"So what do you expect after tonight's game?"

Ahmad Torrence, Jamaica, Guard
"I expect us to be better honestly, and I think we are going to come out with a win tonight.

Tonight's game against Jamaica begins at 8:30 at the Civic and will be aired live by the National Channel.

The tournament began on July 26th and will end on July 30th.