Puerto Rico opened its participation in the Olympic Repechage on Wednesday in a big way at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum with a 99-56 thrashing of Bahrain in front of thousands of fans who gathered at the facility in Hato Rey, San Juan.
The National Team will return to the field on Thursday at 8:30 pm for the highly anticipated duel against Italy, which will decide the leadership of Group B on the way to the semifinals on Saturday.
A loss to Italy would see them face Lithuania, who finished first in Group A, in the semi-finals. A win over the Italians would then see them face the winner of Thursday’s match between Ivory Coast and Mexico for the second semi-final berth in Group A.
Bahrain, with two heavy defeats, was eliminated from the race for a ticket to Paris 2024. The Italians beat them by 61 points on Tuesday.
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Center George Conditt IV was the star for Puerto Rico with 17 points and eight rebounds. Stephen Thompson Jr. led the way with 20 points off the bench, including four triples, while Jordan Howard scored 12 points and Chris Ortiz added 11. Tremont Waters scored nine.
Jose Alvarado, of the New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA, returned to the National Team without scoring points in 19 minutes. He had six assists, three rebounds and three steals.
Perhaps a little nervous about making their home debut, Waters and Alvarado missed their first three-point attempts, one after the other. The team then made four mistakes in a row, mistakes that Bahrain was unable to capitalize on.
Five straight points from Waters, including a bomb, opened the scoring for the home team as part of a 9-0 run. Bahrain’s first two points came with 3:50 remaining on a corner basket by Subah Azzam.
A triple by Chris Ortiz coming off the bench and a dunk by Conditt IV, assisted by Alvarado, raised the Puerto Rican lead to 14-2.
Bahrain shot a dismal 14-1 in the first 10 minutes, with Puerto Rico leading 19-4, closing with a Jordan Howard triple.
Sweet from behind the arc, Puerto Rico opened the second quarter with a blast from Ortiz as part of a 10-0 rally that put the Puerto Ricans ahead, 29-4.
With no pressure on the scoreboard, Colon continued to play with different combinations and Puerto Rico went into the break up 39-19 with eight points from Howard. In the first 20 minutes, the Puerto Ricans connected on seven three-pointers in 20 attempts.
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During the third quarter, Alvarado delighted the crowd with a steal after a throw-in behind the Bahrain basket. The steal led to a three-pointer by Davon Reed with an assist from Alvarado.
The move woke up the fans in a quarter without much action and with the score bulging in favor of the hosts.
Puerto Rico improved its aim from distance to increase its advantage to 28 (70-42), heading into the final period.
For the losers, Zee Hamoda led with 12 and Ali Hasan scored 11.
Relive the match highlights here:
2024-07-04 00:46:26
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