Inless than an hour it will be tip off at the city center as belize takes on Mexico in the Central American Basketball championship. This is the first of two games and in many ways it is seen as a must win for Belize because it is a home game and the pride of a nation is on the line. Today we stopped by the City Center to size up the competition and to see how Team Belize plans to defend the jewel. Keith Swift has the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Tonight it will come down to this: Belize and Mexico on this basketball court inside the City Center.
The players on Team Belize will you tell that they aren't playing just to achieve a victory on the ball court, for them it is more about defending the pride of Belize.
Keith Acosta, Team Belize
"W, definitely a W tonight. Its going to be a lot of hard work tonight, we've seen a couple of the Mexican players so we know its going to take hard work tonight."
LeBoise Gladden, Team Belize
"We have a chance to play in front of the home crowd since like 1998 so we can establish some things tonight and show the world that Belize is here and ready. (To win for) the country it will feel good and also for my parents and grandparents and just everybody who have been here before, just to do something extra for them will be great."
Keith Acosta,
"We're at home and we are defending the home turf so this is just the first step in going to bigger things so it will be very important to secure our home court and win tonight."
Englebert Cherrington, Team Belize
"Obviously they are coming to our house and so there is no way we should be out-hustled. That is what we are looking at, getting all the positions and stuff like that."
Keith Swift,
How important is winning to you?
Englebert Cherrington,
"It's very important, I've never been a loser and I don't like losing in anything. It's a natural feeling so that's what we going to do, we want to win."
Head coach Kevin Siroke says that what Belize lacks in size will be made up in speed. He adds that if three point sensation Kenton Paulino does enough of this, Belize will have the edge.
Kevin Siroke, National Team Coach - Belize
"We knew they were going to be big and strong before they came in and when they came in today they were big and strong so that's not a question. But the thing is, I don't think they realized we had some big guys also so we do have big guys to match up to their big guys but they don't have the guards to match up with our guards so hopefully we can take advantage of that."
When it comes to size, Siroke is talking about Mexican players like the 7-foot tall center and team captain Horacio Llamas.
Horacio Llamas, Captain - Team Mexico
"We will be playing strong defense to make things as simply as possible so we can get the victory. We just started working out last week and so it is a big process for us and hopefully with the experience we have, we'll make things possible."
But Llamas says they don't expect to just walk over Belize. He says they view Team Belize as a formidable opponent.
Horacio Llamas,
"Anyone in the world who doesn't take serious anyone, whether bigger or smaller, can lose that way. You have to take it serious, even if you playing against your neighbor, everything's got to be serious, everything has to be competitive."
Richard Lopez, Team Mexico
"It's going to be competitive for us, I don't see nothing coming easy. As long as we play it well and play hard and get after loose balls I think we are going to be just fine."
The Mexican team's coach Francisco Ramirez gave us his expectations for tonight.
Richard Lopez, Coach - Mexico
"It's going to be a very intense game, we're going to come out with everything, 110% out there, and we looking to take an advantage in game one. We are very much aware of Belize's quickness and style of play, fast breaking and up-tempo. We have been preparing for that and we've gone over all this with our players but we know what we're facing tonight in general."
And so tonight it will be Mexico's size against Belize's speed.
Game two is tomorrow night. If you cannot make it to either game, you can root for the home team from your couches as Channel 7 will broadcast tonight's game live.
