The Puerto Rican team achieved its second success in the FIBA Americas qualifier for the 2023 World Cup, both at the expense of its rival this Sunday, a result that ratifies it in last place in group D with access to the next phase and leaves without possibilities to the Cubans.
Without the presence of his best man, Ysmael Romero, who due to immigration issues was unable to make the trip to Havana, Puerto Rican coach Nelson Ponce had to reinvent his strategy and established an intense rotation that paid off in the second half of the game to secure the triumph.
Extremely complicated game, difficult, which required us to give ourselves 100 percent. The Cuban team is very solid, they gave it their all in front of their fans, but we knew how to take advantage of their shortcomings to stay ahead in the final part, the strategist told Prensa Latina at the end of the match.
Jezreel de Jesús and Christopher Ortiz assumed the leading role in attack for the winning quintet with 21 and 19 points, respectively, although the key was in the effective collective defense that recovered 10 balls and forced the Antillean offense to 21 turnovers.
Once again, the power forward of the Spanish Valencia Basket, Jasiel Rivero, was the most outstanding for the locals with 13 points, but his performance fell below expectations, and his six missed free throws in eight attempts were defining for the team. defeat.
Today we saw a more intense and motivated Cuba team, today it was a different team compared to the previous match, but the lack of play together makes it difficult for us to do everything well in the final moments as it happened today, Rivero explained at a press conference.
In the other duel of section D, where Puerto Rico is third and Cuba fourth, the United States beat Mexico 89-67 in Washington and currently both exhibit the same record of three wins and one loss, although the northerners are the new leaders of the sector .
The third qualifying window will take place between July 1 and 4 and will define the 12 American teams that will continue in search of the seven passages from the region to the World Cup in Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia next year.
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