Chihuahua.— In the return of Jorge Gutiérrez from Chihuahua and Paco Cruz from Sonora to the Mexican Basketball Team, it won 75-66 over its counterpart from Cuba, this Friday night, at the Manuel Bernardo Aguirre gym, within the third qualifying window for the FIBA World Cup 2023.
It was Mexico’s third home game – all in Chihuahua – and all three have been victories.
Both Gutiérrez and Cruz attended the 2015 FIBA World Cup with Mexico, in Spain, and were champions of the 2013 FIBA Americas, in Venezuela.
The match was not so easy for the national team, despite the fact that Cuba arrived with no chance of advancing to the second round of these qualifiers, since the Antilleans, especially from the key, hurt the Mexican defense.
The power forward, Jasiel Rivero, was the one who tried the most for the visitors, especially when Fabián Jaimes was not on the court. The Mexican complied, as usual, with a great defensive work.
After a closed first quarter, in which Mexico took advantage of only one basket, the second period leaned more for the nationals. Jorge entered for a good part of this quarter and served as a point guard, in that period the locals increased the difference to six points.
The most spectacular play of the game came in that period, when Jaimes dived to rescue a ball that was going out, and at the same time he passed with his back to Paul Stoll, who completed the play with a three-pointer, to the roar of the public, who made a very good entrance in the university gym.
Cuba, however, never trailed by more than 12 points, and, in a rough fourth quarter, with several disqualifying fouls against Mexico, managed to get as close as six points with less than three and a half minutes to play.
The locals held on and let Cuba score only a couple of points in the last two minutes of the game.
The best scorer for Mexico was Paul Stoll, who scored 17 points and had six rebounds, while Cruz had 16 points. For Cuba, Rivero had 16 points and nine rebounds.
Esteban Roacho, also from Chihuahua, was deactivated for this match, but he can be activated for this Monday’s match, in Puerto Rico, with which this first round closes.
The 2023 FIBA World Cup will be in the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan.
