Email

Print

Before they leave, the team is playing a pair of friendly games against Venezuela. Game one was played last night at the city center which was the first chance for the Belizean fans to see the national team play. But as we found out - it is very much a work in progress:...

Jules Vasquez Reporting
The Belize team started out the game running off forced turnovers - Darwin Puppy Leslie finishes on this one and on this one big man Sonny Watson runs the length of the floor for a dunk and once it was running in transition, the team looked great it looked like an exhibition. Team Belize took a commanding lead early. But when the adrenalin wore off and those shots started to miss the Venezuelans - a very disciplined cohesive unit started executing in the half court - using size and shooting - and by the end of the quarter that 11 point lead was doing to 3.

And while Belize still had its flourishes here you see Charlie burgess to Alex Carcamo on a fast break alley oop - which sent the crowd wild - Venezuela's superior shooting - saw them take the lead - never to look back. Even as Milt Palacio tried to keep the home team in it with this trademark length of the court drive as the game progressed those flashes of brilliance were no match for offensive precision and at the half Belize was down 6.

In the second half Milt Palacio again showed his explosive finish but team Belize could not get back into the lead Kenton misses flat from the field, Troyer misses, Keenan misses. Smothered by a zone defence - which forced outside shooting - when those shots didn't fall from Kenton Paulino and Richard Troyer. By the end of the third quarter the lead had ballooned to 13.

In the fourth quarter it became clear that team Belize could not handle the zone and the only regular scoring came when it forced turnovers. On defence they couldn't get stops and the Venezuelan shooters were merciless - Team Belize got it down to 8 with streaky shooting. But in the end Venezuela won 83 to 77 - a disheartening home loss but maybe some valuable lessons

Marques Johnson, Coach
"We didn't play a great overall game. I thought the defence in the first half was ok, the second half the gave up too many layups, they shot the ball pretty well from the outside we had a lot of defected plays, we just got to go back to the drawing board and try and figure what we can do better."

Jules Vasquez
"We are having problems scoring in the half court set, the team scores great when its running when its getting rebounds on the defensive end but in the half court set, I know the shots weren't dropping for your shooters."

Marques Johnson
"Well I mean you got to remember Marlon Garnett is not in the lineup and he is a guy that can just kill zone defences. They were smart, they went to zone defence 80% of the game, we could not knock down outside shots consistently they pack it in didn't give us a whole lot on the inside and when you are not knocking down shots against the zone you are going to have a hard time scoring. Again we gave up way too many second shots and just too many interior baskets, we probably had 40 points in the paint and in other to be a competitive team on this level we can't do that."

Jules Vasquez
"Ok now you are adjusting in real time its not like you have a week to go back and review, you have to fix any deficiency you saw quickly. What will you be emphasizing in practice tomorrow."

Marques Johnson
"Well we are going to take a look at the tape tonight and just kind of see what our coverage defensively where it broke down and just try if we get an opportunity tomorrow let the guys take a look at it themselves and show them on video tape what they can do better. That's all we can do at this point. we don't have a lot of practice time right now we got a game tomorrow night we got 4 games in 5 days next week so I can't put too much stress on their legs at this point and have them run through a strenuous practice so it's going to be through video tape and instruction and teaching and hopefully they will respond tomorrow night."

Jules Vasquez
"They say sometimes you learn more from losing than winning. Is that your hope in this case?"

Marques Johnson
"No, I hate to lose, but you do learn something and hopefully in terms of effort I mean this team just out physical us. They became the team that with the aggressor and just throwing us out of the way and that's one thing we got to do a better job at combating teams that are going to be physical because we are going to see that in the Centro Basket Tournament all throughout."

Alex Carcamo, Player
"I hate to lose but you know what Venezuela came out and they shot the ball great I mean we suppose to have the home court advantage, but it look like they had the home court advantage. There is nothing we can say about our offence, sometimes the ball doesn't fall, but defensive wise we could have play a much better defence, it seems like the team just broke down on us for a little bit, but it's a learning lesson, its the first time we are coming together and playing so it's important for us to look at this tonight and come back tomorrow a different team."

Jules Vasquez
"I know Marlon isn't there our main shooter but at the same time I saw you didn't know where to go to set the screen. There seem to be some confusion."

Alex Carcamo
"Some of the players they get on the court and they don't actually know the plays, so I am saying it's a learning lesson. I mean I get frustrated because I know where I am supposed to be and when I don't get a play ran the right way it's kind of frustrating but it's learning for us."

Jules Vasquez
"Is it that you couldn't get your riddim because?"

Alex Carcamo
"No, I am just not comfortable on this floor, it's so hot and the ball is slippery I don't want to take bad shot and its practice I mean this isn't what counts for me, when I get down there you guys know what I am capable of doing, I am going to put on a show. I want to let the guys know that just because I am one of the top scorers I believe that everybody can score so that's why I was passing the ball."

Belize gets a chance to redeem itself tonight when the second game of the friendly series is played at the City Center. We'll have highlights of that game on Monday.

The talented Venezuelan team - which is preparing for the South American Championships - had beaten Panama the night before, in Panama 82 to 79.