The Puerto Rico National Basketball Team He used a 21-7 first period lead and never lost the rest of the way, although he had to go through a major scare to dominate his match. Virgin Islands 76-73 on Tuesday to advance to the second round of the 2022 Copa America in Recife, Brazil.
After their match, the Puerto Ricans waited for the result between the teams Argentina Y Dominican Republic, which was later played. A massive comeback for Argentina against the Dominican Republic would put our team at the top of Group B.
Otherwise, if the South Americans win against the Dominicans, Puerto Rico will be second in the group going into the quarterfinals.
“We had a very tough game against the Virgin Islands. We put everything we had, our focus and our energy into trying to stop them and win the game. “Our priority for this game is offensive rebounds,” said Colon after the game.
“When teams like the Virgin Islands have nothing to lose, they are always dangerous because they play relaxed and without pressure. But we achieved our goals in this tournament to advance to the second round and qualify for the Pan American Games. So we are happy and now our focus is on the second round. round and moves on to the next opponent.”
attack Tremont Waters At the start of Tuesday’s game, he rebounded by scoring eight of the Puerto Ricans’ first 10 points in the game’s first three minutes. George Condit Joined them by dishing out blocks and rebounds, then bench stats, etc Ismail Romero and Alphonsa PlummerThe first in the painting and the other in the distance.
Puerto Rico went 30-9 on three-pointers to lead by as many as 21 points. Ethan Thompson Subtract 7:21 from the second.
The first half ended 45-33 after the Virgin Islands offense rallied to win the second period 26-24. They dominated the third period 19-15.
Miguel Lopez’s three-pointer with 26 seconds left in the fourth quarter brought the Virgin Islands within 74-73, the culmination of the Virgin Islands’ surge. This resulted in a state of emergency in Puerto Rico.
After designing a play, on the next possession, Waters missed a short shot, but Romero recovered the rebound and hit an instant shot that gave Puerto Rico its final lead.
“It’s good that it happened so that people know they have to play for 40 minutes,” Romero said at a press conference afterward. “In games like this, a young team tends to relax. Maybe for them (Virgin Islands), the competition is not so defined, they just went out to play for fun, to defend their flag. And, seeing that early confidence in a 21-7 start, one tends to relax. But they kept playing. That usually happens in basketball and when you see them stuck there you try to react and that’s what we did tonight. We know how to behave.”
Romero had a solid game, scoring 23 points with 11 rebounds. He was followed by Waters, who finished with 17 points and seven assists. Alphonso Plummer Scored 10 points and George Condit He had six points, eight rebounds and two blocks.
For losers Ameer Nesbitt He finished with 26 points, five rebounds and five assists, including four triples. George Milligan 13 consecutive and five rebounds, Roman Hansen 12 with seven rebounds and Ivan Aska Contributed 11 with eight recoveries.
The top two in each of the three competition groups advanced to the quarterfinals, which begin on Thursday after a day’s rest, and the best two-scoring third-place teams, for a total of eight teams. .
These will be ranked from 1 to 8 based on wins and losses and in case of ties, the matter will be settled with scores allowed.
