CARACAS, Venezuela, CMC- Jamaica’s men’s basketball head coach, Sam Vincent, has applauded the efforts of his team despite being knocked out off the FIBA Americas Championships on Sunday.
JamRockerz went down 85-95 to host Venezuela after an impressive come-back which saw them beating reigning champions Argentina.
Jamaica lost their opening three games in the tournament before eliminating Brazil in a do-or-die clash to advance from the first round and scoring an upset win over Argentina.
“I’m very proud of our guys. I’m proud of the way they fought, they stayed with it, they competed and in several of the games we had a chance to win,” Vincent told the Jamaica Observer.
“That’s all you can really try to hope for the first time in a tournament”.
For the third consecutive match the Jamaicans were without Milan-bound forward Samardo Samuels, who is being allowed to focus on his professional move to Italy for the upcoming season.
Venezuela raced to a 19-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.
But the gutsy Jamaicans rallied back fiercely and trailed 39-40 at the half-time interval following a nail biting third quarter before entering the final quarter locked at 59 apiece.
Patrick Ewing Jr. led Jamaica with 16 points, Weyinmi Rose and Akeem Scott both had 14 points, while Durand Scott and Jerome Jordan chipped in with 13 each.
