Our national basketball team may have been crushed by 67 points in Costa Rica and emerged from the Copaba Tournament with a 29 point average margin of defeat, but the good news tonight is that we still have a chance to go to the Centro Basket Tournament. And the Basketball Federation says it needs your Support to make it. Tomorrow night at the City Center, the El Salvadoran National Team is coming to play Belize and the game is big. The General Secretary of the Basketball Federation told us why they need Belizeans need to come out.
Harold Zuniga,
"Hope is alive for Belize to qualify for even bronze medal for the Copaba championship because that is what's on right now. What had happened is that Salvador and Belize are at a point right now where they both have to vie for third place for this region because a Caribbean region team fell out of the Centro Basket championship that's scheduled for July. So what we need to do now is to try to qualify for this third place by beating Salvador twice or outscoring Salvador on two occasions. What we have to do is beat Salvador here and go to Salvador on Tuesday and beat them there again so that we can then show our ability to play and our ability to win."
Jules Vasquez,
There was such great hope, hype, and anticipation about this team when it first started and now some of that hope has perhaps petered out because we didn't win anything, we have an average margin of defeat of 20 points. So if I am a fan, what would you say to me to convince me to come out to the City Center on Saturday?
Harold Zuniga,
"I would tell you that this is Belize. We are a small nation among all the giants next to us and we just have to keep trying and plodding along because before we had basketball supremacy in this region. We were the kings of basketball. For some reason or the other, because of the death some time ago of semi-pro basketball, the popularity of basketball in Belize sort of dwindled and that killed off a lot of the abilities and a lot of the sports men or the basketball greats. What we need to do is keep building basketball and keep pushing for better ability, better games, better performance and we should be able to regain our belts. We have to support what we have."
The game is tomorrow at the City Center and again, Belize needs to either win both or emerge victorious form one with a greater margin of victory. The team will be without the services of Kenton Paulino who injured his neck in Costa Rica. It was feared that the injury could have been career threatening but he is recovering and may rejoin the team if it makes it to the Centro Basket Tournament.
