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The Venezuelan basketball team defeated its counterpart from the Bahamas 115-70 this Thursday, in one of the matches corresponding to Group E in the last FIBA window. The match was played at the Poliedro de Caracas stadium and Vinotinto won the game from start to finish, with partial scores 33-21, 34-16, 25-16 and 23-19.
José Materan and David Cubillan, from Venezuela, and Ahmad Pratt and Domnick Bridgewater, from Bahamas, were the top scorers of the game with 16 points each.
The game started quite evenly, until the last part of the first quarter in which Venezuela took a 12-point advantage over the visitors, with two free throws by José Materán and a three-pointer by Yohanner Sifontes.
In the second quarter, the Venezuelan team continued to show dominance in their offense, this time with three baskets in a row from Néstor Colmenares. Bahamas tried to shorten the score with two scores by Kadeem Coleby, but with the attack of Windi Graterol, Néstor Colmenares, José Materán and David Cubillán, Venezuela increased their lead to finish the second quarter with 34 points over 16 from Bahamas.
The first half of the match ended with a difference of 30 points in favor of Vinotinto. Bahamas looked blurred in the last two quarters of the match, in which Venezuela added 48 more points, to end the game 115-70.
The team led by Argentine Fernando Duró was close to qualifying for this year’s World Cup; Venezuela’s next commitment will be Canada, Argentina’s rival this Thursday, on Sunday. On the same day, the Bahamas will visit Panama.
Dominican Republic victory
In the other game that completed Group E, the Dominican Republic beat Panama 93-67 as a visitor, in a match that was played at the Arena Roberto Durán and that had partial scores of 14-20, 25-18, 19-26 and 9-29.
Jean Montero, the visitor’s player, was the game’s top scorer with 17 points (5/7 triples); In addition, he contributed three rebounds and three assists. At the local, Ernesto Oglivie added 15 units.
The Dominicans are Argentina’s next rivals and the Caribbean won the first match against those led by Pablo Prigioni by a difference of 11 points (80-69) and that will be a defining factor in the event that both are tied.
Bahamas and Panama no longer have chances to seek qualification.
