Canada claims top spot on Group C, Venezuela, Argentina and Bahamas pick up victories

MIAMI (United States) – Venezuela continued their momentum on the third day of action of the second window of the Americas Qualifiers and reached their fourth straight victory. Canada also remains undefeated, while Argentina and the Bahamas bounced back. This is how the day went:

Bahamas 86 – 74 Virgin Islands

Willis Mackey Jr. wasn’t about to let Bahamas stay winless in Group C play. The pride and joy of Grand Bahama scored 15 of his 25 points in the first quarter to set the tone for his country’s 86-74 victory over the Virgin Islands (0-3) Saturday afternoon at the Palacio de los Deportes in the Dominican Republic.

Mackey Jr. dominated the beginning of the game, converting from inside and out en route to notching 15 of Bahamas’ 19 first-quarter points. The power forward kept pace throughout the contest and finished with a double-double after also grabbing 10 rebounds, helping Bahamas steadily build their lead and always maintaining USVI out of reach.

The visiting team mounted a valiant comeback effort in the fourth quarter thanks to a scorching hot streak from forward Jamaal Samuel, who converted on four consecutive three-pointers and scored 14 of his 24 in the final period. Samuel, who shot 6/12 from beyond the arc, Ivan Aska (19 points and seven rebounds) and Xavier Richards (17 points, six rebounds, seven assists and four steals) were three of four USVI players in double digits, but their team couldn’t keep Bahamas off the glass and that turned into insurmountable deficits on second chance points and free throws allowed.

For Bahamas (1-2), Mackey Jr. had plenty of help. Jack-of-all-trades guard Travis Munnings ran the show to the tune of six points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, while Danrad Knowles (14 points), Tavario Miller (12) and Mychel Thompson (19-6-5) also scored in double digits. Defensively, the squad was effective and disciplined, holding the Virgin Islands to a paltry 37.7 percent from the field and allowing just nine free throws.

 

Paraguay 48 – 97 Venezuela

Venezuela is a runaway train right now and there’s seemingly nothing anyone can do about it. Fernando Duro’s squad crushed Paraguay 97-48 on Saturday afternoon in Buenos Aires, Argentina to remain undefeated (4-0) atop Group A of the 2023 FIBA World Cup Americas qualifiers.

The vinotinto quickly opened a double-digit lead in the first quarter and just kept increasing it, culminating in a performance where they more than doubled the scoring output of their opponent. Key in breaking the game open was the outside shooting of Jhornan Zamora, who connected on his first four three-point attempts and finished with a game-high 24 points. The Caracas-born shooting guard went 9/11 from the field and spearheaded the Venezuelan long-range attack that produced 15 three-pointers on 38 attempts.

 

Paraguay (0-4) just couldn’t match their rival’s firepower. Only Fernando Dose and Luis Ljubetich (11 points apiece) managed to score in double digits in a sloppy performance that featured 25 turnovers to only nine assists. Juan Pablo Feliu’s team was barely able to make over a third of their shot attempts, closing out the game shooting 33.9 percent from the field.

As for Venezuela, they never really lifted their foot off the gas and had five different players scoring in double digits. Michael Carrera (15 points and seven rebounds), Pedro Chourio (13 points on 3/9 from downtown), David Cubillán (13 points and three assists) and Yohanner Sifontes (10 points) inflicted damage on a game where Venezuela shot 49.3 percent from the field and a perfect 10/10 at the charity stripe. Most impressive of all was that they dominated despite a lackluster showing from big man Nestor Colmenares (5 points in 16 minutes), who was coming off a stellar outing against Argentina on Friday.

Canada 85 – 79 Dominican Republic

Despite jumping out to an early 10-0 lead in the first quarter, Canada had to work hard against a tough Dominican Republic team playing in front of their home crowd.

They managed to cut Canada’s lead down to just two at the end of the first. Victor Liz and Rigoberto Mendoza tipped in five points each to catch up to Thomas Scrubb and Kyle Alexander who scored seven and six points respectively as Canada led 22-20.

By the second quarter Canada started to share their offensive load as Kaza Kajami-Keane tipped in seven points while Kassius Robertson added six points and Phil Scrubb added five. Victor Liz continued his streak scoring 14 points by the half but with little help finding the rim from teammates, Dominican Republic trailed 42-36 to Canada going into halftime.

 

Canada tallied up the fouls sending Dominican Republic to the foul line for 42 shots, Alexander fouled out of the game in the fourth quarter fighting a tough matchup against Eloy Vargas. Canada continued to dig in on the defensive end fighting for rebounds, but it was Dominican Republic’s inability to make shots from the free throw line that was their downfall in the match shooting just 54 percent from the line missing out on a potential 20 points.

Dominican Republic causing turnovers in transition allowed Canada to maintain a sustainable lead that would see them win 85-79. Victor Liz led all scorers with a whopping 29 points but Angel Delgado’s double-double of 11 points and 13 rebounds proved hard for Canada to cover defensively. Both Phil Scrubb and Kyle Wiltjer led Canada in scoring with Wiltjer scoring 15 points while Scrubb added 14.

Argentina 65 – 58 Panama

After a well-deserved win the day before, Panama had the momentum in their favor as they took on one of their toughest challenges yet in facing Argentina. As Argentina is not only one of the best teams in their group, but one of the best teams in the Americas. With scoring machines on both teams, the game was lined up to be an offensive back and forth and a battle on the boards.

 Argentina hopped out to a fast start the way they have all tournament, but it was Panama who led by a point going into halftime. Carlos Delfino and Ernesto Oglivie, two leaders for their respective teams, both made immediate impacts with Argentina’s Nicolas Brussino and Panama’s Josimar Ayarza stepping up for their teams as the game stayed too close for comfort through three quarters.

 

 However, Argentina’s veteran squad showed more endurance than Panama and managed to make a seemingly impossible comeback. Holding Panama to just one point for almost five minutes in the fourth quarter, Argentina scored 16 points in the final quarter which would prove to be enough to find the win even with a comeback chance for Panama, but ultimately Argentina squeezed out the 65-58 win.

 Panama controlled play in the paint and managed to get Argentina off the boards as much as possible on defense. But turnovers and being unable to stop Argentina in transition ultimately blew Panama’s lead and allowed Argentina to move to 2-1 in Group A play. As he has for Argentina time and time again, Delfino led the scoring charge with 15 points and 9 rebounds – all defensive - in the win. Oglivie continued his streak of games with 15+ points with a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds for Panama.

 FIBA