Puerto Rico ride unwavering Waters into Second Round

MANILA (Philippines) - Second Round here we come. Puerto Rico took care of business and secured a spot in the next stage of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 with a 107-89 victory over China in the final game in Group B.

Puerto Rico shrugged off their loss to Serbia and had six players score in double figures to advance past the First Round for the second straight World Cup. The win also improved Puerto Rico's record against China to 5-1 all-time, including wins at the 1978, 2006 and 2010 World Cups.

Game Highlights

Turning Point: Puerto Rico led the entire game and the cushion was 39-31 when the Americas side reeled off an 11-2 surge to grab a 50-33 lead. The cushion was as large as 18 points early in the third quarter before China trimmed the deficit to 9 points at 64-55. But Puerto Rico never wavered and had an answer every time China thought they could make it a game.

TCL Player of the Game: Tremont Waters was Puerto Rico's main leader all game and he finished the game as top scorer with 22 points on 9-of-14 shots, including 4-of-8 three-pointers. He added 6 assists, 3 rebounds and 4 steals to earn TCL Player of the Game honors.

Stats Don't Lie: Puerto Rico shot 54 percent for the game including hitting 16 three-pointers at a 47 percent clip. They also managed to hold China's outside game to 37 percent. The Americas side also put together a 16-7 advantage on second chance points. 

Bottom Line: Puerto Rico can now look ahead to the Second Round and games against Dominican Republic and Italy as the Caribbean nation hopes to reach their first top eight since 2002.

China, for their part, will move onto the Classification 17-32 and fight to reach the 2024 Olympics or the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.

They Said: "At this point I am just very proud of my team. We completed the first goal tonight on our own. And that is important for us. We won the game yesterday in practice. We had a great practice. All of the players were locked in, focused, paying attention to the details. We had a good game plan. It was about execution. The way we played tonight was terrific. We had six players in double figures. We controlled the boards, had fewer turnovers, had a lot of assists and offensive rebounds. We played our best game here. This is a good moment for us and we will be ready for the next chapter." - Puerto Rico coach Nelson Colon

"We wanted to come out and set the tone early. The coaches did a great job giving us a game plan. We just followed through with it. We were lazer focused because we wanted to put a 40-minute game together. We had some lapses but that is part of the game. Most importantly we stuck with it, continued to fight and battle and we came out victorious." - Puerto Rico power forward Christopher Ortiz

"We feel grateful to have the opportunity to be at the World Cup. Now we will be going to the Second Round and we have a big opportunity to be among the top eight in the world. But there is a lot of work to do." - Puerto Rico center Isaiah Romero

"I told my guys, this is going to be a dogfight. And it's going to be like that tomorrow. We have to keep our head cool and keep fighting for our goal. Tomorrow is a new game. I am happy about how we hustled and how we played offensively in certain points in the game. But defensively we were not focused on what we had to do." - China coach Aleksandar Djordjevic 

"We had a fighting spirit at both ends but on the defensive end we suffered a lot. We didn't focus on details and the execution was not good. That's why we had some ups and downs and lost the game." - China guard Hu Mingxuan

Press Conference

The game report will be updated shortly. Check back soon for Game Highlights and They Said.

FIBA