From that point onwards it was downhill for Belize as Mexican center Horacio Llamas and company had already established momentum and were not about to let it slip away. Belize, despite being down, opened third-quarter play with determination as Leboise Gladden converted a lay-up, and when Sonny Watson brought the house down with a spectacular alley-oop on the feed from Darwin Carter with 8:19 remaining in the third, Belize was only down by 48-36.

But Mexico would not go away. Mexican Karim Malpica hit a basket to give his team the 52-38 lead with 5:21 remaining. The remainder of the quarter saw spurts by both teams, but nothing sustained long enough to change the outcome, as the quarter ended with Belize trailing by 16, 68-52.

Any hope Belize had of overtaking their opponents was immediately crushed at the start of the last quarter when Enrique Zuniga of Mexico opened the fourth hitting a huge 3-pointer. Kenton Paulino quickly responded by hitting a 3-pointer of his own, but Belize was still behind, 71-57. Belize fought toe to toe and was fairly competitive for the remainder of the game, being outscored only 18-15, the final score being 89-72, a 17-point difference.

Belize was led by Darwin Carter 19 points, Leboise Gladden 19 points 10 rebounds and Kenton Paulino 15 points. Mexico had five players in double figures with big man Horacio Llamas leading the way with 16 points while pulling 10 rebounds. He was followed by Enrique Zuniga 13 points, Karim Malpica 11 points and Richard Lopez and Victor Mariscal scoring 10 points each.

Belize was out-shot from the field, 40% to 36%, while their opponents attempted 41 free-throw attempts to Belize?s 21 attempts, hitting 24 of them to Belize?s 13. Strangely enough, according to the statistics Belize outrebounded their opponents 45-35, had 10 blocks to their 2, but turned the ball over a whopping 22 times compared to Mexico?s 15.