by Charleston Gladden

On Friday night, March 17, Cayo Western Ballaz hosted despised rivals, Smart Belize Hurricanes, at the Sacred Heart Auditorium. This is the second and final meeting of both teams this season. Both teams are looking to get their composure together and make a playoff push for the second part of the season.

As the opening quarter started, Western Ballaz were on the early attack taking and obtained an early lead, but sadly their lead vanished when Smart Hurricanes went on an offensive rampage. As a result, Smart Hurricanes ended the first quarter with an 8 point lead with the score at 25 – 17. It continued in the second quarter, as Western Ballaz were lackadaisical on defense and couldn’t get anything going on offense. Thus, finding themselves down 12 going into the half. In the second half, Western Ballaz were able to tie the game at 47, but weren’t able to maintain any type of lead. That was the case until mid-fourth quarter, when the score was even tied once again at 60; from that moment Cayo Western Ballaz had gained momentum and confidence to win the game with a score of 82 – 78.

Player of the games goes to Richard Troyer with 21 points and 9 rebounds; shooting 42% from the field. Other contributing players for Cayo Western Ballaz were Darwin Leslie with 17 points, Brandon Flowers with 9 points and 7 rebounds and Elsworth Itza with 8 points and 7 rebounds. Top players for Smart Belize Hurricanes were Akeem Watters with a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds, Andrew Ortiz with 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists and Brian White who had a double-double of 12 rebounds and 11 points.