By: Charleston Gladden

On April 28, 2017, Belmopan Bandits travelled down south of the country to start Game 1 in the NEBL Playoffs against Dangriga Dream Ballers. In the regular season, both teams split their respective meeting and taking home court advantage from each other. Also, both teams have a reputation of exiting out of the playoffs in the semi-finals, but now it’ll be the first time that both these teams are meeting in the playoffs; either Belmopan Bandits or Dangriga Dream Ballers have a chance advance to the finals.

As the game went underway, Belmopan were on a slow start to get their groove together and in that time the home team were on the attack and converting on their opportunities. Eventually, Belmopan Bandits were able to compose themselves together and manage to tie up and take the lead in the early portion of the second quarter and ended the first half with a score of 41 – 37. Beginning of the second half was slow for both teams, as they were converting little to nothing on every possession. That’s until when Belmopan Bandits went on a scoring run and dominated on both ends of the court. As a result, winning the game by a margin of 16 points with the score settled at 71 – 55. This gives Belmopan Bandits their first post-season win on the road in franchise history. Game 2 will be played on Thursday, May 4th, 2017 at the UB Gymnasium.

Player of the games goes to Edgar Mitchell of Belmopan Bandits with an 11 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists performance. Other contributing players for Belmopan Bandits were Stephen Williams with 14 points and 6 rebounds. Greggory Rudon tallied with 14 points also coming off the bench. Farron Louriano contributed with a double-double of 11 rebounds and 10 points. Top players for Dangriga Dream Ballers were Tahj Wells with a double-double of 18 points and 13 rebounds. Trevaughn Usher contributed with 12 points and 4 rebounds coming off the bench. Quinton Bowen chipped in with 6 points and 9 rebounds.