{"id":54712,"date":"2025-08-09T05:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T05:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/54712\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T05:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T05:50:08","slug":"jamaica-mexico-start-strong-in-group-a-fiba-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/54712\/","title":{"rendered":"Jamaica, Mexico start strong in Group A\u00a0|\u00a0FIBA Basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CIUDAD OBREG\u00d3N (M\u00e9xico) &#8211; Group A of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Americas Pre-Qualifiers tipped off on Friday with two games at the ITSON Arena in Ciudad Obreg\u00f3n, Mexico. Jamaica and Mexico opened its campaigns with victories over Barbados and Costa Rica.<\/p>\n<p>The four national teams will play through Sunday, August 10, in a round-robin format, with the top two teams advancing to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Americas Qualifiers on road to Qatar 2027.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a look at the highlights from Day 1:<\/p>\n<p>Barbados <a class=\"_1pmct9j0\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fiba.basketball\/en\/events\/fiba-basketball-world-cup-2027-americas-pre-qualifiers\/games\/125478-BAR-JAM#boxscore\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">79 &#8211; 101<\/a> Jamaica<\/p>\n<p>Jamaica\u2019s offense showcased its firepower, surpassing the 100-point mark and knocking down 12 three-pointers. Romaine Thomas and Romaro Gill led the attack with 20 and 19 points, respectively, each also recording a double-double with 10 and 11 rebounds. Thomas drained four shots from beyond the arc, while Gill added four blocks.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" style=\"opacity:0;object-fit:cover\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Romaro Gill<\/p>\n<p>The Miami Heat guard Norman Powell made his debut for Jamaica, logging 28 minutes and finishing with 12 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 3-for-7 from the field.<\/p>\n<p>The Jamaicans controlled the paint, outrebounding their opponents 56-42 and registering 7 blocked shots.<\/p>\n<p>They also tallied an impressive 28 assists, with Prince Foster and Seyi Reiley leading the way with six apiece.<\/p>\n<p>For Barbados, Kyrone Alexander scored a game-high 28 points with three triples and grabbed 9 rebounds. Akeem Marsh followed with 16 points. The Bajans outshot Jamaica from long range, making 13 three-pointers, but they did so on 48 attempts for a 27 percent efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>Mexico <a class=\"_1pmct9j0\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fiba.basketball\/en\/events\/fiba-basketball-world-cup-2027-americas-pre-qualifiers\/games\/125480-MEX-CRC#boxscore\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">77 &#8211; 66<\/a> Costa Rica<\/p>\n<p>The hosts saw their 20-point lead shrink to just six in the fourth quarter, but a 13\u20138 run over the final eight minutes was enough to secure their first win.<\/p>\n<p>Gabriel Gir\u00f3n scored 15 points, Joseph \u00c1vila hit four three-pointers to finish with 14, and Israel Guti\u00e9rrez rounded out the offensive trio with 11 points, coming up just one rebound shy (9) of a double-double.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"\" style=\"opacity:0;object-fit:cover\"\/><\/p>\n<p>JJ \u00c1vila<\/p>\n<p>Mexico connected on 11 shots from beyond the arc and capitalized on Costa Rica\u2019s 17 turnovers, converting them into 18 points on the other end.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Costa Rica was led by Avery Mart\u00ednez (13), V\u00edctor Arias (11), and Daniel Shedden (10).<\/p>\n<p>Next games:<\/p>\n<p>Saturday, August 9 (Day 2)<\/p>\n<p>CRC vs. JAM \u2013 4:00 p.m. (local time)<br \/>\nMEX vs. BAR \u2013 8:00 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>Also read<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"ru3du4v\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fiba.basketball\/en\/news\/chile-cuba-deliver-wins-on-group-b-opening-day\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img alt=\"\" style=\"aspect-ratio:10\/5.625;opacity:0;object-fit:cover\"\/>Chile, Cuba deliver wins on Group B opening day <\/p>\n<p>FIBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CIUDAD OBREG\u00d3N (M\u00e9xico) &#8211; Group A of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Americas Pre-Qualifiers tipped off on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-54712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}