The Defenders: Champions at Last

Eight years of chasing a championship finally ended in celebration on Friday night as the Belize City Defenders secured their first National Elite Basketball League title.

The Defenders defeated the Orange Walk Running Rebels at the Orange Walk Multipurpose Complex  to clinch the best-of-five championship series after entering Game Five with a 2-1 advantage. When the final whistle blew, players, coaches and fans erupted in celebration in front of a packed home crowd.

For veteran Nigel Jones, lifting the trophy meant more than any individual accolade. “I have been coming out here for years. This is the only thing I did not have, and I promised myself to come into this season that I was going to cut back on everything, all the distractions that I felt did not have me focused. I didn’t care about no MVPs, averaging twenty points a game, all I wanted to do was just win this year,” Jones said. “And I thank God, he let me and my teammates come out and do this. We couldn’t be here without him.”

Meanwhile, General Manager John Marsden thanked the supporters who stood by the club since its formation in 2018. “Gratitude, thank you to every Defender fan that ride with we through the beginning in 2018 up to this point. Every sponsor that stayed with us from 2018 to this point,” Marsden said.

He called the win one of the most meaningful moments of his life. The Defenders organisation takes a lot of pride in winning and in making sure our players are well taken care of. When this moment come, I have never felt something so joyous yet, beside the birth of my second child. This is the most joyous feeling,” he said.

The title marks the first NEBL championship in the Belize City Defenders’ history and ends an eight-year wait for the franchise and its fans.