– Costa Rica hold on for 78 – 75 win to boot Guyana out of FIBA World Cup Pre-Qualifier

A monster game from Delroy James was not enough to save Guyana from going down 78 – 75 against Cost Rica last evening in San Salvador.
The result saw Guyana ending their participation at the 2023 FIBA World Cup Pre-Qualifiers in El Salvador without picking up a win from their four outings.
Guyana entered last night’s encounter coming off a heart-breaking 90 – 92 defeat to the home team (El Salvador) and was hoping to at least finish the tournament with a morale-boosting win.
However, they failed to get the ball to their talisman, James, on two critical plays under a minute in the game, which proved to be part of their demise.
James had a game high 29 points, dragged in 12 rebounds and handed out five assists. He also picked up three steals and had one block-shot.
What was more impressive was that James played much of the second half with four fouls, having picked up the penultimate penalty almost mid-way through the third period.
Along with point guard and captain, Stanton Rose Jr (16 points, nine rebounds), James helped Guyana to level at 20-20 with Costa Rica at the end of the first stanza, while seeing the men from the ‘Land of the Jaguar’, to a two-point cushion (41 – 39) at half time.

But just like their three previous matches, Guyana collapsed once again in the third period, and when Coach Junior Hercules made the right call to pull his ‘big man’ out of the game when he picked up the third foul, Costa Rica made a run and gained a small lead on the Guyanese.
In fact, Guyana was outscored 27–15 in the third quarter and trailed by 10 points (56 – 66) heading into the fourth.
Deylon Bovell, who finished the night with 10 points, got things going in the final period when he was fouled from behind the arc and made good of his three shots from the ‘stripe’.
A lay-up by James on the opposite end after a rebound from a Kay Martinez missed jump-shot saw Guyana clawing back by five points (61 – 66).
A three-pointer by Rose, his third for the night, along with two free-throws from James saw Guyana going on a 10 – 0 run and tying the scores (66 – 66) two minutes into the fourth.

Martinez would then knock down a three, pushing Costa Rica back in the lead, but it was short-lived after James answered with one of his own, to tie things back again (69 – 69).
Costa Rica went on an eight-to-nothing run (77 – 69) as Guyana couldn’t find a bucket.
It was not until James’ ‘and one’ shot with three minutes to go that Guyana saw a basket. James scored the free-throw, completing the three-point play; putting Guyana down by five points (72 – 77). A three from James; his fourth ‘dime’ of the night, with two minutes, two seconds left, brought Guyana within three points (75 – 77).
But James would only have two more touches of the ball as he was ‘froze-out’. Martinez was fouled by Bovell and could’ve only converted the first of his two shots. Costa Rica was up 78 – 75 with 00.06s on the clock. Akeem Crandon came up with the rebound and Harold Adams’ ‘prayer’ of a shot fell well-short of the mark as the buzzer sounded.
The five-team group, playing in a round-robin format, will only see the top three teams advancing to the next round of qualifiers for teams in the Central American and Caribbean regions for FIBA. Team Guyana will return home today.