BELIZE CITY, Mon. July 10, 2023
The 2023 Belize Elite Basketball League Tournament ended anti-climactically last Friday night at the Belize City Civic Centre with the Benny’s Belize Hurricanes defeating the San Pedro Tiger Sharks, 79-73, to win the championship finals, three games to one.
It is the club’s third championship, and it was the Tiger Sharks’ sixth time being in the finals where they too have won 3 championships.
The Hurricanes started the tallest lineup ever in a Belize tournament game, with playoffs MVP combo guard Victor Evans 6’ 3″ and forward Kirk Smith, Jr. 6’ 8’ being joined on court by teammates Marquis Williams, Alex Carcamo and Jamel Harris, all of whom are 6’ 10″ or thereabouts.
The “experiment” was not successful as the squad soon fell behind a smaller but obviously faster San Pedro squad that had created a 15-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
The insertion of super-sub Sixth Man of the Year, Tyrie “Harlem Kid” Orosco and guard Rene Eyan, along with Evans and Smith playing along with either Carcamo or Harris, helped the Hurricanes to remain in competition, 35-31, at the half. They fell behind by 10 points midway through the third, but a man-to-man, near full-court press, and the Tiger Sharks being called for 6 consecutive fouls, helped to almost even the score, 55-53, at the end of the third quarter, and then tie and take the lead in the opening minutes of the fourth.
Fatigue may have been a factor for the San Pedro Tiger Sharks who were missing Doug Penland, and though center Elsworth Itza’s name was called in the introduction, he never appeared. The coaching duo of Darren Bovell and Rico Black will have to second guess themselves and wonder if they couldn’t have found some playing time for Jullian Theisen and some more minutes for their big rookie Matt Gordon.
They did have the benefit of Jamaal Clifton’s return to the lineup after serving a two-game suspension, and he scored the game’s first basket, but also picked up the game’s first foul too. He was hampered by 4 fouls most of the game and “only” played 27:52 minutes.
His starting teammate Kyle Stewart is on record as playing the entire 40 minutes of the game, while fellow starters Jihad Wright, (38:19), and Francis Arana, (35:34), also logged almost of the on-court time.
They got spot relief from John Kelly, Jamal Kelly, Kyle Young, Matt Gordon, and Keith Pollard.
Jihad Wright led all scorers in a losing cause with 26 points shooting 8-19 from the field while Kyle Stewart shot 3-15 for 15 points under the duress of some superlative defense by Kirk Smith, Jr.
Vic Evans led the champions with 23 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, and 3 steals. Kirk Smith tallied 21 points and 7 rebounds, whilst Jamal Harris had 11 points,
Tyrie Orosco contributed 9 significant points, 7 rebounds and 2 steals in 2 stints of great game-turning defense totaling 21:35 minutes on-court.
It is expected that the BEBL will announce its regular season and playoff awards in the coming days.
AMANDALA congratulates the Benny’s Belize Hurricanes on winning their third Belize semi-pro basketball championship.
Photos: Benny’s Belize Hurricanes Facebook page.