COL – Jamaica’s Gidden dominates

NEIVA (FIBA Americas Championship for Women) - Jamaica and Mexico are rank outsiders at the FIBA Americas Championship for Women, where teams are battling for the gold medal that will clinch a spot in the London Games.

The two sides gave fans in Colombia a treat, though, by playing a very close game on Sunday that Jamaica ultimately won, 69-64.

Mexico, who had been blown out in their first game against Canada on Saturday, pulled to within 65-64 with 2:52 to go after a jump shot by Abril Garcia.

Jamaica, in their first game of this year's tournament, held on for the win.

They got 28 points and nine rebounds from center Vanessa Gidden.

Veteran shooting guard Nicole Louden poured in 19 points while evergreen Simone Ann-Marie Edwards contributed 13 points and 12 rebounds to the winning cause.

The 1.90m Edwards is 37 years old.

In a battle of sides that played at last year's FIBA World Championship for Women in the Czech Republic, Brazil defeated Canada 56-39.

The Brazilians only led 23-20 at halftime but then outscored Canada 23-9 in the third quarter to take command.

Allison McNeill's side got no closer than 13 points in the final period.

“Brazil is a team you have to play well against for 40 minutes and we didn’t," McNeill said.

"We played well for a good portion of the game, but we struggled offensively in the third quarter and then just lost our concentration.”

“We had some breakdowns defensively,” added Canada's Chelsea Aubry.

“Offensively, we just could not find a way to put the ball in the hoop.”

Eighteen-year-old Damiris Dantas, the MVP of the U19 FIBA World Championship, led a balanced Brazilian attack with 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Argentina played for the first time and trounced Chile, 80-50.

Trailing 13-10 at the end of the opening quarter, the Argentinians torched their opponents for 25 points over the next 10 minutes and led 35-21 at halftime.

Led by Carolina Sanchez's 15 points, Argentina cruised the rest of the way.

Puerto Rico bounced back from their opening day setback to Cuba with a 68-46 demolition of hosts Colombia.

Guard Cynthia Marie Valentin had a game-high 24 points for Puerto Rico and her teammate Marie Placido finished with 11 points and nine rebounds.

FIBA