GUYANA’S poor showing at this year’s FIBA Centrobasket tournament in the Dominican Republic continued yesterday, when they were beaten 115-48 by Puerto Rico.
After suffering a heavy loss to the Bahamas (114-63) on the opening night, coach Lugard Mohan was hoping for his men to regroup and perform better against Puerto Rico who were victorious against Mexico (67-53) in their first game.
Kevon Wiggins, who had 32 points against the Bahamas, was the team’s leading scorer once again with 15 points, while Akeem Crandon had a double-double (10 points, 11 rebounds).
Gianfranco Grafal had a game-high 23 points, six rebounds and four steals for Puerto Rico, while being supported by Jeriel Zayas (20), Algenis Quintana (17), and Ernesto Torres (14).
Apart from Wiggins and Crandon, Jaheel Young had five points, while Nigel Bowen and Andrew Johnson each had four points.
Guyana will look to end the round-robin stage of the tournament on a high when they face Mexico (who defeated the Bahamas 83-75) today at 15:00hrs.
Teams will play in round-robin format for three days, after which, the top two teams from each group will advance to the next phase, where the first-place team of Group A will oppose the second-place in Group B and vice versa.
The winners of the semifinals will advance to the ‘gold medal match’, while the losers will play for the bronze of the continental event.
The top three teams from the tournament will qualify to the FIBA U-18 Americas Championship 2018, to be played in St Catharines, Canada, June 11-17, 2018. (Rawle Toney)