Hot off winning the gold medal of the Women’s Centrobasket Senior League Caribbean Regional Championship held on St. Thomas last month, the Virgin Islands Senior Women National Basketball team routed 8th-ranked Brazil 67-60 on Wednesday in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the 2017 International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Women’s AmeriCup is being held from August 6-13.
According to commentators and FIBA’s own article on the game, the win was a “major upset” for Brazil, whose 8th-ranked team was expected to easily defeat the USVI team.
From the get-go, the team coached by Wilo Colon matched up with the more experienced Brazil. With huge performances from Natalie Day and Imani Tate, who combined for 38 of their team’s point, the Caribbean team came from behind and forced overtime. Brazil couldn’t believe what was happening and the Virgin Islands grew in confidence, to produce a 9-2 overtime and claimed the shocking upset against the South American Champions, according to FIBA’s article.
The top-three teams from the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2017 will qualify to the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2018 in Spain.
Puerto Rico also made history by claiming its first ever win over Cuba 70-67, and took a step closer to the semi-final qualification. Both teams had a slow start, but that all changed in the second quarter when with great energy Puerto Rico took control of the scoreboard with a 26-12 quarter. The second half saw Cuba start to chip away from the difference with great moments from Anisleidy Galindo, who had 20 of Cuba’s points. With less than a minute to go the difference was of three-points, Puerto Rico held the ball for time to expire and took the significant win. Pamela Rosado put on the Super Woman cape for Puerto Rico and produced 17 points for the Boricuas.
Tags: US Virgin Islands Women's Basketball
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