Rainy Weekend; Play On! Your Weekend Sports Review

Good evening, Belize. I’m Paul Lopez, and welcome to your weekly dose of action on Sports Monday. We had a jam-packed weekend of sporting excitement, and we’re diving right into it. Let’s tip things off with week six of the Belize Premier Basketball League. The Belize City Thunderbolts were back on their home court Friday night at the Civic Center, facing off against the Capital City Kings. Now, outside it was all wind and rain—but inside, the Thunderbolts were bringing the heat, looking to settle the score after a tough loss to the Kings just a couple weeks ago in Belmopan. Let’s look at how that rematch played out.

 

Victor Evans taking Jayden Lopez all the way inside on the drive to put up the first basket of the game, and its an And-1.  Jayden Lopez, responding on the other end with a three-pointer off the assist from Brandon Flowers. Five minutes in the first, the ball game is at eleven to three, the Kings down by seven points. Flowers with the layup to cut down the lead. Nisani Mendez shortly after with the step back and made three-pointer. Victor Evans on the other end, over Mendez from the arch. That is good. The first quarter ended with the Thunderbolts in the lead; twenty-two to fourteen points, an eleven points quarter for Evans. Shane Pratt here early in the second quarter, misses his first three-point attempt. John Kelly with the offensive rebound, finds Pratt again and that time the three is good. Twenty-two to nineteen, the Thunderbolts still in the lead.

 

And Evans responded immediately at the other end with a beautiful jump shot over Pratt. The first half ended thirty-nine to thirty-four, with the Thunderbolts still in the lead. They led from the start of the game up to this point. The Kings coming alive early in the third, Jevaughn Mckenzie makes a three. Flowers followed with a nice layup off the Mckenzie assist, again the Thunderbolt’s lead is cut to three points. Late in the third, with three minutes left on the clock. The ball finds Clency “Cope” Lopez at the three-point line and he extends his team’s lead to ten points, fifty-five to forty-five. The Thunderbolts went on an eleven-three run to end the third with eighteen points lead.

 

The Thunderbolts realized their largest lead of the game in the fourth quarter, twenty-five points lead. And it was all but over for the Kings at that point. They tried to claw their way back but were unfortunately unable to do so. Evans led the game with twenty-four points, while Mathew Young came out with twelve rebounds and eleven points for a double double. Brandon Flowers and John Kelly also had double double performing nights, with twelve points and thirteen rebounds and eighteen points and thirteen rebounds respectively. Also, the EZ Investment Dream Ballers brought down the Corozal Cerros Suns on Friday night, sixty-nine to sixty-three points. The Tiger Sharks are now six and zero after defeating the Punta Gorda Panthers eighty-to seventy-five on Saturday inside the Civic. On Sunday….

 

Now, that is enough for basketball, but as we said it was a rainy Friday night and Saturday across the country. But that did not stop football from playing in both the William Dawson Peace Cup and the Anthony Mahler Youth Football Tournament. The Yabra Greens was the stage for this weekend’s Peace Cup matchups. The mud and winds were no match for Ceasar Ridge FC and Graveyard FC. They came to play.  Eleven minutes in, Lawnie Leslie timed the ball perfectly for a kick from outside the penalty box and through the legs of the goalkeeper. A tremendous effort from Leslie. Watch Leslie again on the left-wing sprinting towards the penalty box. Leslie connects in front of the goal and gives his team two goals to zero lead.

 

Fifty-nine minutes into this one, young Zebulon Leslie for Graveyard FC sprints down the left wing in similar fashion and celebrates one goal for his team. But Caesar Ridge would come back to score three additional goals, including this miss and recovery from Leslie for a hat-trick, his third goal of the match. CRFC won the game five goals to one. In the Youth football tournament Belize United’s youth team defeated the Reality Youth. Shae Gordon out the gate with back-to-back early goals for Belize United. Marques Martinez with a goal in the fourth minute for Reality Youths as well. Belize United won this one, three goals to one.  Ladyville Rising Stars overcame Sampson Academy two goals to one. Fredrick Garbutt and Elton Anthony scored the goals for Ladyville, while Lloyd Burgess rose to the occasion for Sampson Academy.  Well folks, that is all we have for you in tonight’s coverage of Sports Monday. Catch you in the next one!