Turks and Caicos Islands start U15 Centrobasket strong, Bahamas fall to Puerto Rico on Day 1

GURABO (Puerto Rico) – The FIBA ​​Centrobasket U-15 Championship has begun at the Fernando “Rube” Hernández Coliseum in Gurabo, Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Turks and Caicos Islands, Mexico and the Dominican Republic will seek to win one of the three tickets to the FIBA U16 Americas ​​Championship.

Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico picked up wins on the opening day to move up the standings.

Costa Rica 61 - 67 Turks and Caicos Islands

Turks and Caicos entered the last quarter of the game with a 6-point deficit (51-45) and managed to turn the score around against Costa Rica to claim their first victory in the tournament.

The island's defense tightened in the last quarter and only allowed 10 points (4-19 FG) by the Costa Rican team. Ethan Taylor stepped up with 10 of his 15 points in the final quarter of the match where he also added 2 assists, 2 steals (4 in total) and 1 rebound (11 in total).

Roldjudson Lacossade led Turks and Caicos Islands with an extraordinary stat line of 28 points, 18 rebounds, 4 blocks and 2 assists.

Troy Brischke (15 points, 10 rebounds and 2 assists) and Josafat Cedeño (9 points and 16 rebounds) stood out for Costa Rica.

Puerto Rico 107 - Bahamas 42

Puerto Rico put on a show at home and won by 65 over the Bahamas.

The Bahamas opened the scoring and Puerto Rican immediately responded. The Puerto Rican squad had a 22-2 run and then stretched the lead too far for the Bahamians to respond.

Despite the difference, Puerto Rico did not relax in any part of the match and maintained their strong offense (46% shooting from the field and 17 assists) as well as the intensity on defense (31 steals).

Felipe Quiñones was the top scorer for Puerto Rico with 19 points. All 12 players for Puerto Rico were able to score with four of them surpassing ten points. Justin Román Padilla put on an incredible performance with 8 points, 13 rebounds, 5 blocks and 4 steals.

For the Bahamas, the most outstanding player was Joshua Williams with 10 points and 4 rebounds.

The action continues Sunday:

Turks and Caicos Islands – Dominican Republic (15:00) – Local time
Mexico – Bahamas (17:45)
Costa Rica-Puerto Rico (20:30)

NOTE: A longer version of this daily recap, including the Mexico vs. the Dominican Republic game, is available in Spanish here.

FIBA