Hoops Sagrado: Saving the weirdest for last

As you know, we spent the last two and half days of our trip at the Lake. Most of the students spent their time eating, sleeping and shopping. But of course, because it's Hoops Sagrado, there was basketball.

In addition to the game in San Pedro that we already blogged about, there were three games on Sunday night in Panajachel. The traditional phrase is "save the best for last" but in this case it was save the weirdest for last. First up were the Hoops young guys team and that game went pretty well.

Things seemed to be going well during the first game. It was a well-played, close game without too many bad calls and the Hoops Sagrado young men's team won 41 to 37 (Alec 15P/15R; Los 12P/3R; Manny 2P/4R; Ronnie 2P/1A/4R; Christian 4R; Djeder 5P; Zion 3P/1A/2R; Jesse 2P; Xander 2R; Max 2R).

Initially things seemed to be going pretty well in the girls game, but then the questionable fouls started rolling in and before we knew it KayKay and Tevanah each had four fouls out on them. With 7:45 to go KayKay fouled out (although we think she was given some other people's fouls) and with no sub we were down to four players. Initially it seemed like the coach of the Pana team was willing to run with four players on his side as well, but then they just decided to call the game with Hoops winning 40 to 22 (KayKay 7P/6A/1R; Tevanah 9P/1A/9R; Tee 23P/1A/8R; Mackenzie 2A/2R; Malakia 2P/3R).

Obviously there was no team photo after the game

Then it was time for the Hoops Men's game. It was pretty chippy from the get-go with lots of hard fouls and bad calls for the entire first half. But as everyone pointed out...it's basketball, it's a physical sport. At half time, it seemed like maybe the refs were going to call the game (it really was not that bad, and I'm the first to admit when it gets too violent), but it turns out it was one of the Pana players who refused to continue playing and therefore the rest of the team wouldn't play either.

Here is Bryan's post from Facebook about the game: In the 16 years of Hoops Sagrado we have never had a ref call a game because it was too rough, for them. Hoops defeats Pana 31-28 in a game that was called at Halftime. It without a doubt, was a low watermark in Guatemalan basketball. Our game Saturday vs San Pedro was far more rough and both teams were all smiles and hugs afterwards. SMH Pana has become too Hippie.

Monday was spent buying gifts, swimming, horseback riding and just relaxing. We had a team dinner to celebrate our last night in Guatemala and Carlos' birthday and then it was back to the hotel to wait for our midnight departure to Guatemala City and the airport.