With just a handful of games left before the postseason brackets lock in, the 2025 BPBL regular season has entered its money phase—the clutch quarter, the separation stretch, the part where Cinderella dreams either wake up or start slipping on glass slippers. Every dribble now echoes louder. Every rotation matters more. And every team knows the margin for error is vanishing by the minute.
The Tiger Sharks are still circling the waters with a perfect record, but the frenzy beneath them is anything but calm. Dangriga has rallied behind a rising core and realigned their chemistry without their injured anchor, while Cayo just threw a thunderbolt into the Civic with an Arik Nicholas masterclass for the ages. Meanwhile, Corozal is suddenly alive, the Panthers are either a move away from resurrection or collapse, and the Thunderbolts—well, they’re as unpredictable as the very lightning they claim to wield.
This is the week when reputations are either rewritten or reinforced. The playoff seedings? Up in the air. The MVP ladder? Shifting sands. And the pressure? At an all-season high. Let’s dive into the rankings and find out who’s rising, who’s sliding, and who’s clinging to hope like it’s a loose rebound in traffic.
The Belmopan Capital City Kings have struggled over the last two games. They had a bright spot when they beat the Western Ballers at home, and this is probably their biggest win for the entire season. The main reason this win was big is because Western Ballers was at full strength while they were not even at full strength, and they won an overtime classic. However, at 2-6, they have the worst record in the BPBL. More alarming is that they have only had two games played from their superstar import Daniel Estes due to his absence. Estes’ absence has left their other foreign center exposed, as he appears to be their finesse center, while Estes would have been their power center to match the physicality of the other centers in the league.
To compound matters, an apparent injury to Chucky McKenzie has further reduced their depth. This has made it difficult for them to stay with high-scoring teams, as was evident when their leading 3-point shooter McKenzie was not available for the Belize City game. This resulted in basically a game that was out of reach by the second quarter and stayed out of reach for the rest of the game. For Belmopan to compete in the highly competitive Mayan division, they will have to address the situation they have with Estes that is causing them to not compete in conference games.
The Panthers have shown great potential and excellent promise, but over the last four games they have basically lost every game. This does not bode well for their future outlook. They have two wins, both against the Corozal Suns. However, in one of these wins they were trailing by 20 points. Their only two wins this season came by way of the Corozal Suns, who is the team that handed them a fourth straight defeat this past weekend. Until they can beat another team besides the Corozal Suns, and until they are able to close out close games against the big boys, their record will continue to act as an anvil around their necks, dragging them towards the bottom of the power rankings.
Word on the street is that there is a major move afoot that would reverse this downward cascading slide, and possibly totally reposition the Panthers to make a legitimate push towards the championship. In the absence of this forward-looking move, the Panthers, who could have closed out the Corozal Suns last weekend and taken full control of the third seed, have left the door open for Corozal to crash the party and take command of the coveted third seed in the Toucan Conference. One thing is for sure: with a rematch against Dangriga and Game 4 between Corozal and PG scheduled for the increasingly tough Andres campus stadium, it’s safe to say that the third seed for the Toucan Conference is going to go through Corozal.
The sun is shining in Corozal. Once thought to be just a developing program in the league, the Corozal Suns are poised to make a run at the third seed in the Toucan Conference. The Suns have one more game left with the Panthers, and that game is in Corozal where it is becoming increasingly more difficult for teams to come in and win. They have a back-to-back match against Dangriga Dream Ballers, also in Corozal, where Deshawn Bracket will not be questionable to participate. If Corozal wins these two games, they would likely be the third seed in the Toucan Conference. There is community enthusiasm among the team and the community, and they are beginning to believe. Jamal Clifton has emerged as a superstar and is moving into national prominence with his appearance as one of the front runners in the Toucan Conference Player of the Year award. Newly acquired Jones has proven to be a difference maker, averaging about eight points per game and bringing some control and order to the Suns’ offense.
The key to the success of this team is the play of Greg “Chippy” Rodan. When Chippy scores 15 or more, this team is in the last two minutes of all those games, but when he scores 6 or less, they do not compete. If he takes his role more seriously and brings the numbers he’s capable of to the table, this Corozal team cannot be counted out with more than four games to go in this season.
There are indeed two types of lightning storms: those that drop thunderbolts and those that strike lightning. In this story, lightning is Eyen Rene and thunder is Charles Garcia. When Charles and Eyen are on the floor along with Coope and Evans, the Thunderbolts look like a team of destiny with the cup championship held aside for their presence in Greece. When Eyan and Charles are no-shows, the Thunderbolts just appear to be an annoying drizzle. There are two different Thunderbolts that show up at any given game this season. So far, Victor Evans has missed two games for two losses, Glency Lopez has missed one game for one loss, Charles Garcia one game for one loss, and Eyan Rene four games for three losses.
It is clear that the Thunderbolts’ future as a top-tier team in this league lies somewhere between their unfortunate health situations and their unexplainable load-management decisions. Whenever any of these two events take place, the Bolts lose. A team expecting to be 7-1 or 8-0 at this point in the season is struggling with a 4-4 record, and as a famous broadcaster once said, you are what your record says you are. Unless and until the Thunderbolts can put their full roster on the court on a consistent basis, they will play like and eventually be permanently tagged as a middle-of-the-road team whose talent is elite but whose presence is mediocre at best. The Bolts may be suffering from an age-old sports norm which says you can’t just turn it on and turn it off when you feel like it. The Bolts need to turn it on, and turn it on means all hands on deck for the next four games, or they very well will find themselves out of sync and out of sorts, unlucky in chemistry when the final crunch time game comes along. That game may very well be a cup championship game.
After dropping an overtime thriller to the Capital City Kings a week ago, the Western Ballers had to listen to critics for a week: Do they have enough clutch killers? Do they lack heart? Do they need to make major changes? Will they be able to compete against the Sharks and the Thunderbolts? Well, that question was answered emphatically this weekend when they stunned the Thunderbolts in Belize City with a dramatic win that many are now calling the game of the season. The stat line that Arik Nicholas laid down in that game was nothing short of historic, posting an incredible 34 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 block shots, which included a game-saving block on MVP front runner Glency Lopez. For Arik, this game was a put-up-or-shut-up game. Arik is a confident and flamboyant player who is well known for his sarcasm and humor when it comes to his game and how confident he is at showcasing his talent. However, his last performance landed him off the MVP ladder even though his bad game was a 16-point performance. Arik knew this Saturday night on the floor would be MVP front runner Glency Lopez and second place on the ladder Victor Evans. He recognized this was his opportunity to prove he belongs with the big boys, and boy did he make his point. Arik is widely considered the next big thing in Belize basketball, and if you are not convinced, you clearly were not in the Civic Center on Saturday night. Yet, while this is the arrival of Arik Nicholas the MVP candidate, was it the arrival of Western Ballers the team? A close game in the last two minutes had some critics and analysts pointing out that they beat a Thunderbolts team that did not have either lightning strikes or thunderbolts in the person of Eyan Rene and Charles Garcia. While one would say the absence of these two starters may put some question marks on the Ballers’ victory, we are equally happy to point out that the absence of Eyan is becoming almost a guarantee, and the injury to Garcia is something that should not be discounted.
Either way, both Arik and Dennis Flowers proved to be the lethal combination many were foretelling when given the right circumstances and court conditions. Ciego is coming into his own while Everett seems to be falling further off the radar. With two games left and a couple of games to figure it out, will they make another move to try to improve their chances to enter the big dance?
The Dangriga Dream Ballers seem to have weathered the storm that was punctuated by the injury of Deshawn Bracket, now settling into a consistent, predictable, and versatile offense. Daniel Conorque has stepped up his game significantly, and Edgar Mitchell is now the dangerous offensive weapon that we always knew him to be. Pile on top of this the arrival of Kirk Shabba Smith Jr., who brought the interior presence, the outside shooting, and the overall maturity needed for Dangriga to be taken seriously in this quest for the Jaguar Cup. Kevon Laurie is looking like the Defensive Player of the Year, complemented by a top-tier offensive game, and he is now quietly one of the bedrocks of the Dangriga franchise’s run this season. Flowers and others continue to provide the depth this team needs, and now they have the confidence and seem to be playing together as a band of brothers. They have taken solid control of the second position in the Toucan Conference and by so doing have anchored home court advantage in any playoff series for the right to go to the cup.
Dangriga still has some weaknesses, specifically in the middle with more size and on the bench with more depth. However, they do have the option, the opportunity, and the resources to fill this gap come playoff time. The question is, given the chemistry and production they are now getting from their Big 4, will they go into the playoffs with chemistry, or will they take a chance at possibly upsetting this chemistry in an effort to bring in more size and more scoring? We eagerly await the next move of this proud franchise that is eyeing a championship for the first time in its history.
The Tiger Sharks at 8-0 have all but clinched the number one seed in the Toucan Conference. They are also sweeping all the awards conversations with a runner in the MVP race and the Conference Player of the Year race, while Tyrell Griffith and Keon Rowland are one and two in the U-21 category league-wide. The only thing that can derail this championship run by the Sharks is injuries. The Sharks are yet to change any of their starting 5, but they have been in conversation as the rest of the league catches up to them. Jihad Wright has been present for the last three games, and everyone now knows he’s here because he’s actually made his first entrance into the season awards with an appearance on the Conference Player of the Year ladder. With four games to go, many believe that this will soon translate to the MVP ladder where Jihad has lived and breathed his entire career.
The Sharks have earned the right to play possum, to load manage, and to angle their players for the races that they are in. Rico Black, the puppet master, is certain to be in a back room somewhere playing kingmaker for these award nominations for which he has a stable full. But uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, and after three close calls and several roster changes, it is whispered that the Sharks may not be as invincible as they were in the first half of the season. The most desperate team to have the first strike at the Sharks is the PG Panthers. If the Panthers can match the desperation and energy put out by the Suns last week, the Sharks may be looking at their first loss of the 2025 campaign. All eyes will be on the Civic Center on Thursday night. History is on the line.
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