DUBAI // Puerto Rico – an "unincorporated territory" of the United States – is well known for producing baseball players, but, in Dubai, it is the Caribbean island's basketball players who are attracting attention.
The Puerto Ricans secured a spot in the quarter-finals of the Fiba Under 17 World Championship on Tuesday at Al Shabab Arena, fighting off a relentless Egyptian challenge with an 86-79 overtime victory in one of the tournament's more exciting matches.
It was Puerto Rico’s fourth victory in as many games after a group round in which they beat Spain, Italy and the UAE, establishing themselves as the surprise of the championship.
“I’m pretty sure we were the underdog [coming into the tournament],” Puerto Rico coach Daniel Ortiz said. “I don’t think anyone expected us to be playing so well as we are right now and competing the way we’re competing against great teams.”
Sixth-place finishers at the 2009 Under 16 Fiba Americas and fourth in their next two tries, Puerto Rico has never been known as a significant basketball nation, aside from a 19-point thrashing they gave the United States at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.
But the expansion of the U17 championship from 12 to 16 teams this year worked in the favour of one of baseball's best exporters of talent. Now they are in the last eight.
The Puerto Ricans trailed by four with 2.20 to go and gave Egypt plenty of chances to put them away before three free throws led to overtime.
“It’s a wake-up call right now for our guys because we had three games that we did so well. They were probably getting a little too confident,” Ortiz said. “I was afraid of that. I kept talking to them about that, but I guess they just had to see that in the game – that this is a competition where anyone can beat anyone.
“We did a good job coming back, little by little.”
Puerto Rico’s two most famous basketball players are the former NBA point guard Carlos Arroyo and the current NBA point guard Jose Barea.
Yesterday, it was their 1.85-metre point guard, Ivan Gandia, the captain, who channelled those two in directing Puerto Rico’s offence against an Egyptian full-court press that troubled the Puerto Ricans.
Gandia scored 29 points on 10-of-23 shooting, grabbed six rebounds and made four steals. That performance came just as the big men who had carried them through the group round – 2.05m Arnaldo Toro and 1.98m Leandro Allende – struggled against Egypt’s pressure defence.
“When I play point guard I try to get my teammates some shots, but sometimes the team needs me to score,” Gandia said. “Any game – could be anyone. The other two games Arnaldo, I give the ball to him and let him work.
“Our advantage can be that our bigs can do work inside and shoot outside. Our guards are good, really good shooters. Anyone can have a good day like I had today. It’s just about finding them and giving them some shots.”
Gandia said the Egyptians caught them off guard after their near-perfect group round.
“It was a hard game; we weren’t expecting it at all. A rough day. I think we were too confident with the other three wins, but we pulled it out,” he said.
“We always have to have the underdog mentality, even though teams know we’re good now. We need to keep our minds straight and play hard.”
It will not be hard to keep cultivating that underdog mindset, with Australia and their towering front line waiting in the quarters.
Toro, so important with 20 points against Italy and 13, with 12 rebounds, against Spain, struggled to have the same impact against Egypt’s 2.03m 15-year-old, Ahmed “Bebo” Khalaf.
Against 2.11m Isaac Humphries of Australia, it will be that much tougher.
But with Puerto Rico, good or bad, it is becoming expected to see the unexpected.
“We want to shock the world,” Gandia said. “That has to be our mentality. We want to outwork everybody, play harder than everybody. Has to be the mentality every game.”
jraymond@thenational.ae
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