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Paul Thompson - President, Belize Basketball Federation
"The winners as we said for the men get to go to New York for the world tour - 4 players get to go to New York and then for the U-18 we select a national team to go to Spain for September."

Jules Vasquez reporting
Stakes were high and it showed on the court where play was physical and fierce - as the winners form each district battled it out on the Jamborees Parking lot on an especially hot Saturday:

David Craig, Marketing and Sales, Sprite
"This is street ball and street ball is played on the street on any hard top anywhere in the country. We want to bring that back again where people get outside and get in the breeze and play, not necessary at night or in a gym."

And the players responded with true grit and stamina - playing as many as 8 games in five hours

Darwin Puppy Leslie, Team Belmopan
"You can't lose today. If you want to win you can't lose. That game is finish and we have another one right now."

Devin Daly, Team Belize (Juniour)
"We always try to make the game fun and that's the thing that creates that balance for the intensity and the heat and all of that. We just try to make it fun so that all of the negative factors can go away."

And it is a game that Belizean players have been playing informally most of their lives, but now they're learning the science behind it:

Oral Enriquez, Belmopan (Juniour)
"Here in Belize most of the time we don't have tournaments and we guys we go out on the court and play 3 on 3 everyday, so maybe that will be a great chance for us to get out there and show our talents."

Darren Bovell, Orange Walk
"A 3 on 3 basketball is mostly pick and roll basketball. Pick and roll and isolation, so we have to stick with that and if we do and execute properly we can win this tournament."

But on this day it came down more to strength and stamina than precision - because the championship game both for seniors and juniors, were hard fought, brutally physical matchups.

In the end, the agony of defeat was real as was the thrill of victory:

Jareth Arnold, Coach, Corozal
"It's been a while since we took something like this home. I think this is the first time we ever took home a 3 on 3 championship and we are of this, proud of the entire team. We all work together and we represent and we took out the entire country."

Tariq Middleton, Team Belize (Juniour)
"In the next few weeks we will be practicing at the civic. They said that they wanted to practice, run some plays and we'll see how that goes."

David Craig, Marketing and Sales, Sprite
"We are happy if we could find out of this tournament we can select 2 or 3 players that can be on the junior national team - we're big."

The Corozal men's team will now make preparations to participate in the FIBA 3 on 3 World Tour in New York on August 18th and 19th. A National team will be selected to represent Belize in the U 18 three on three World Championship in Spain on September 27th-29th 2012.