By: Charleston Gladden
On Thursday night the Verdes team travelled to the nation’s capital to face off against their western rivals the Belmopan Bandits. Things started off hot the Verdes as they led halfway of the first quarter by a score of 13 – 3. However, Bandits were able to cut the lead on to a single possession game at the end of the first with a score of 19 – 17. Consistently, the score remained close together as halftime came with Verdes still having the lead at 41 – 38. Also, throughout the second half the scoring stayed side-by-side. That’s until Verdes got hot in the fourth and made shots from everything and opening up the led. Thus winning at the score settled at 96 – 76. Richard Troyer leads Verdes in scoring with 24 points and 7 rebounds. Followed by Kris Frazier with 21 points and 9 rebounds, and Tyrone Hall contributing with 13 points. Belmopan Bandits were led by Jevtone Huges with 21 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals.
Elbert Ariola DNP due to an ankle injury (right).
On following night games were shifted to Belize City where the Belize Hurricanes hosted the San Pedro Tiger Sharks at the Civic. As expected with this game, both teams kept the score within reaching distance between one another but San Pedro maintained the scoring throughout the first half. Ending the first half at 42 – 35. Baskets by Daly and Lopez brought the Hurricanes within reaching distance to the sharks. Unfortunately due to the injury to Lopez, Hurricanes was down without their floor general in the game. Thus, San Pedro won the game with a score of 80 – 75. San Pedro Tiger Sharks were led by Jihad Wright finishing with 32 points and 8 rebounds, and Martevuius Adams with 16 points and 7 rebounds. Glency Lopez chipped in 16 points and 6 rebounds, and Shannon Fowler finished with a double-double of 13 points and 10 rebounds for Belize Hurricanes.
Devin Daly scored 20 points in return after an ankle injury (right) while playing the FIBA tournament.
Glency Lopez suffers from a bruised hip (left) with 17 seconds remaining in the 4th quarter; He will be evaluated by team officials on Monday.
Closing the off the weekend on Saturday, the Hurricanes travelled up west to play against Verdes. Unfortunately without their all-star point guard playing the game, Hurricanes started off quite slow as they started to a slow start. However, the managed to battle themselves back into the back by halftime at the score knotted at 34 – 21. At each possession the Hurricanes tried digging themselves out of the hole, but as they do so Verdes were right there pushing them deeper. Elsworth Itza dropped a career-high in scoring with 22 points and 4 rebounds to lead Verdes to a 76 – 64 victory over the Hurricanes. Kris Frazier and Tyrone Hall both contributed with 12 points respectively, and Richard Troyer with 11 points. Devin Daly led Hurricanes with a team-high of 20 points and 5 rebounds, and Eyan Rene with 11 points.
Glency Lopez DNP due to a bruised hip (left).