Beaten once during the first window, Team USA has little room for error in this second qualifying window for the World Cup and avoided the Puerto Rico trap. They win 93-76.
Joe Johnson, 40, is still in good shape, his team’s top scorer with 18 points at 7/11, well helped by Matthew Ryan (15 points at 5/8 from afar) and Justin Wright-Foreman (13 points at 5/8 ). Team USA shoots at 50% including 13/34 from far and limits Puerto Rico to 43.5% including 5/20 behind the arc despite 18 points at 6/9 from Javier Mojica.
However, the meeting did not start well for Team USA, which quickly found itself behind in the score, 17-9 then 32-22. But Jim Boylen’s players came back well at the end of the half to be only 2 small points away. They took the measure of their opponent and dominated the 3rd act to take control and break on a big run (22-4), including a 3-pt shot from Jared Harper and a dunk from Jordan Bell, 77-58.
