Mexico made history in the basketball cathedral by defeating the United States team by final cards of 97-88 and incidentally achieving the lead in the first FIBA qualifying window for the 2023 World Basketball Championship.
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It took about three years for the Mexican team to beat the United States on Mexican soil and what better thing happened in the big state, in a match in which the fans of the burst sport waited with great expectations after seeing how it was saw in his debut against Puerto Rico.
Starting the game there were seven changes of leadership where the Stars and Stripes team finished better in the last two minutes of the game, with their best weapon being the American selective Bj Jonson who achieved 8 points giving the advantage 28-21.
The Mexican team started the second period with five unanswered points, but the Americans increased the pace to take double-digit advantage, despite the fact that the national squad tried to get back into the game with a last-minute basket from Orlando Méndez who made vibrate to the fans that gathered at the Manuel Bernardo Aguirre Gymnasium to go to halftime 57-48 in favor of the United States.
After the break, a more fierce Aztec team came to the field ready to recover on the scoreboard, where the Mexican team tied the game at 64 points, renting at 6:59 clock, in which a historic reaction was foreshadowed for the Mexican fans. where it was also possible to see the debut of Chihuahuense Esteba Roacho with the national team.
Starting the fourth period, the United States got six unanswered points to reduce the advantage to only 3 points and it was not until Gabriel Girón scored the first points for Mexico with a triple that he woke up the Chihuahuan fans, who at all times supported the 12 Warriors.
The key moment was when the scoreboard marked 6:18 for playing where the best player in the United States, former NBA Isaia Thomas, was expelled from the game, in a play in which Paul Stoll fouled and the former Boston Celtics player elbowed the Mexican, which merited the departure of the North American player, who at that time was the best with 21 points, a moment that the national team took advantage of to maintain its advantage
Since the departure of the best player in the United States, the Mexicans took all the claw and honored their nickname of the 12 warriors to seal the 97-88 victory.
For the Azteca team the best scorer was Orlando Méndez who finished with 27 points and 6 assists followed by Gabriel Girón with 19 and Daniel Amigo with 18 points.
With this result, Mexico took advantage of its location to be the leader of group D with two victories without defeat, heading towards having a better chance of having a ticket to go to the 2013 World Cup.
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