Ja advance to quarters in FIBA 3x3 tourney
Published:Sunday | December 15, 2024 | 12:11 AMOrane Buchanan - Staff Reporter
JAMAICA’s male and female basketball teams made a decent start and will be hoping to continue their advance at the ongoing FIBA 3x3 tournament in San Juan, Puerto Rico after both punched their ticket to today’s quarter-final stage.
The female squad of Tashawna Higgins, Crystal Primm, Sasha Dixon and Tifanny Reynolds will go up against hosts Puerto Rico at 1:30 p.m. Jamaica time.
In yesterday’s fixtures, they registered a 14-9 victory over Mexico, followed by a 20-15 defeat against Canada.
According to head coach Oneil Brown, he’s aware of the threat that Puerto Rico will bring.
“We know what Puerto Rico brings to the table and, as the hosts, they’ll have the crowd behind them. This team is mature and has experience. Coming here, we said that we wanted to get into the quarter-finals. We will see what today brings in order to try and put ourselves in medal contention,” he stated.
Brown also stated that the Jamaicans are waiting with bated breaths on the availability of Primm, who is nursing a hamstring injury.
“In the first game against Mexico, she suffered a hamstring injury and, against Canada, she only played a minute as we finished the game with only three players. I think it’s going to come down to Crystal Primm, as we really want to have her for Sunday’s game.”
On the men’s side, Jamaica’s quartet of Jabulani Newby, Xavier Sewell, Lushane Wilson and Nicolai Brown will go into action today at 2:20 p.m. Jamaica time against the high-flying United States (US).
According to Rick Turner, head coach of the team, there are a few tweaks that the team needs to make in order to defeat the Americans.
“I think, on the offensive end, our spacing isn’t right. We’re not playing with a sense of purpose on the offensive end that I think we could be playing with, and, going into today’s game against the top-ranked team in the tournament, if we don’t find a way to fix that, we could be in real trouble,” he stated.
The team played five games yesterday and registered four victories against St Kitts (21-7), Cuba (22-4), Trinidad and Tobago (21-17), and Argentina (21-14). Their lone defeat came against Canada (19-14).
While Turner is aware of the dangers that the Americans possess, he is confident that his team can pull off something special.
“They (US) are the top-ranked team in the tournament, the world, and they have unlimited resources. However, they put their shoes on the same way as we do. When you compare their players to our players individually, I think we compare nicely,” he analysed.
“The Americans play like a connected unit. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting there and have made progress in that area. I love our guys. I know they’re going to fight. We’ll take our best swing and see what happens,” Turner added.
He explained that the team is reaping the success of their pre-tournament camp in Seattle, US.
“I’m certainly happy with what we’ve been doing. We’ve won four games, the most as anyone in the tournament so far. We had a good training leading up to this tournament in Seattle. Defensively, we’re doing a nice job with our communication and working hard together.”