Canada, Argentina, USA stay unbeaten; Puerto Rico grab first win

YUCATAN (Mexico) - Canada, Argentina and USA continued their strong starts and moved to 2-0 at the 2023 FIBA U16 Women's Americas Championship, while Puerto Rico ended Day 2 by getting into the win column in an exciting game against Mexico.

Here's a look at how the group play games unfolded on Day 2:

Canada 90 - 40 Dominican Republic

Canada dominated the game from the jump and raced out to a big lead, never looking back. They kept expanding their lead and led by 18 points after one quarter, 30 at halftime and 51 after three quarters, also holding Dominican Republic to just 2 points in the third.

The win puts Canada at 2-0 and Dominican Republic at 0-2 in Group B.

After having 10 players score in their first game, Canada outdid themselves and had 11 players score in their second game. Seven players scored at least 8 points and Jahda Denis led all scorers with 15 points in only 15 minutes on 4-of-8 shooting from the field and 3-of-5 from three-point.

Cearah Parchment turned in another solid stat line with 13 points, 6 assists, 5 steals and 4 rebounds. Deniya Prawl also produced a well-balanced stat line of 9 points, 6 steals, 5 rebounds and 5 assists.

Dominican Republic had more than double the turnovers than Canada (42-20) and Canada took advantage by scoring 45 points off those turnovers.

Argentina 70 - 59 Brazil

Argentina improved to 2-0 thanks to defeating Brazil in the second game of the day from Group B.

The first quarter was tightly contested at 16-14 in favor of Argentina until they outscored Brazil 25-15 in the second quarter to open up a 12-point lead heading into halftime.

Brazil eventually trimmed their deficit to 8 points in the final quarter, only to have Argentina put the game away for an 11-point victory.

Milagros Morell recorded another impressive double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds along with 4 assists. She shot an efficient 6-of-15 from the field and 3-of-4 from three-point range. Fiamma Solis and Sol Depetris also scored double figures with 14 points and 13 points, respectively.

The backcourt duo of Solis and Depetris also each made two threes.

After not playing in Brazil's first game, Rebeca Soares had a strong tournament debut and finished with a double-double of her own with 16 points and 10 rebounds in a losing effort.

Argentina outscored Brazil by 18 points from beyond the arc. Despite attempting only one more three-pointer than Brazil, Argentina converted six more from long range.

Colombia 29 - 93 USA

This game was all USA, as the tournament favorites showed how dominant they can be as shown by the final score. The loss dropped Colombia to 1-1 in Group A.

USA outscored Colombia 25-2 in the third quarter, 21-2 in the final quarter and led by as many as 64 points.

Colombia were held to simply 4 points in the entire second half, while USA scored 46 points in that time frame.

All 10 players scored for USA and five players scored in double figures led by Darriana Alexander (17 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals), Hailee Swain (14 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals) and Jerzy Robinson, who had a huge double-double of 12 points and 21 rebounds.

USA also had a huge advantage in total rebounds (78-29, as well as 32-7 on the offensive glass), second chance points (26-3), points in the paint (60-16) and assists (12-2).

Puerto Rico 78 - 76 Mexico

The best game of the day was saved for last, as Puerto Rico outlasted Mexico in a tightly contested battle that came down to the wire.

Puerto Rico grabbed an early 12-2 lead on the hosts and led 22-19 after one quarter, but Mexico responded with a 24-14 second quarter to take a seven-point lead into the locker room.

The majority of the second half was then played within single digits with Mexico leading for the majority, but Puerto Rico took multiple brief one-point leads and gained momentum at the end.

Mexico had a chance to tie the game and send it to overtime, but Sandra Acuna's runner bounced off the rim.

Puerto Rico had several key contributors including two 20-point scorers in Adriana Robles (23 points, 10 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 assists) and Jaida Guerra (20 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists).

Desirek Nieves also chipped in with a 10-point, 12-rebound double-double to go along with 4 assists and 3 steals.

Acuna stuffed the stat sheet and finished 5 assists shy of a triple-double with 14 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and 4 blocks. After only playing 6 minutes in the first game, 15-year-old Giovanna Molinar recorded a team-high 21 points and shot a perfect 9-of-9 from the field.

Similar to their first game, turnovers hurt Mexico in the end, as they committed15 more than Puerto Rico (29-14). This led to Puerto Rico tripling Mexico in points from turnovers (18-6).

Puerto Rico's Day 3 group play game against Colombia will decide who finishes in second place in Group A heading into the Quarter-Finals.

FIBA