BELIZE CITY CIVIC CENTRE, Sun. July 30, 2023
Belizeans were euphoric as the nation’s U17 boys’ national basketball team defeated Mexico’s, 87-72, in the FIBA U17 Centrobasket here tonight, and finished in third place and won the bronze medal.
Neither team had been able to defeat the eventual gold and silver medalists, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, respectively, whose final game followed in anti-climactic fashion, a 106 -57 Puerto Rico victory.
With only a few seconds left in the Belize win over Mexico, the team, coaches and fans swarmed the court and mobbed Belize Basketball Federation President Jacob Leslie as the public address announcer Kenny Morgan ecstatically sang Lord Rhaburn’s iconic Brukdong song “If yu Bawn Deh”!” acapella as the final buzzer sounded.
Belize’s coaches, led by Bernie Tarr, who had to take a back seat because of an expired visa, Darwin “Puppy” Leslie, Steven “Muerte” Williams and Anderson “Roscoe” Rhys had emptied the bench with less than a minute to go and Belize leading 87-70, substituting Amare Jones, Thomas Garcia, Meshach Flowers, Daniel Musa, and Jason Orosco for Tevaughn Dawson, Ian Parham, Wilford Dawson, Elijah Favela and captain Douglas Langford, Jr.
Parham, Wilford Dawson, Elijah Favela and Langford, Jr. along with Devin Moody had started the game which saw Belize fall behind 17-21 after a quarter, and trail 40-43 at halftime.
But the youngsters would rally to hold Mexico to just 12 3rd-quarter points while scoring 20 to take a 5-point lead.
Belize’s 9-point run across the end of the third and the first 2 minutes of the 4th quarter would then give it a game defining 12-point lead.
Douglas Langford, Jr., who led the team with 12 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks, and a steal (no turnovers), was named to the tournament’s 5 All Star team players despite having played 3 games on a swollen left ankle.
Tevaughn “Shugga” Dawson came off the bench to shoot 9-13 and lead Belize in scoring with 22 points; while 3-point sniper Elijah Favela’s and Devin Moody’s 15 points each, as well as Wilford Dawson’s 11 points, on a combined 6-10 shooting from downtown, were primary contributors to the victory.
Mexico’s Angel Ochoa, a nationally top ranked high school freshman in the US, led all scorers with 34 points.
The top three teams from Centrobasket U17 Championship 2023, namely Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Belize, qualify to compete in the FIBA U18 Americas Championship Uruguay 2024; and the top four finishers from that tournament will qualify for the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup 2025 in Lausanne, Switzerland, June 28 to July 6, 2025.
The Dominican Republic finished in seventh place, and Puerto Rico beat Mexico for fifth place in the 2022 FIBA U18 Americas Championship in June, in Tijuana, Mexico, a tournament won for the 10th time by the United States, with Argentina, Canada and Brazil finishing 4th, 3rd and 2nd, respectively.
Several of Belize’s national team players have reportedly received scholarship offers from US high schools, a junior college and colleges.