Puerto Rico 97: Brazil 75
The answer to the question: What’s Up with Puerto Rico? may have been answered. Maybe they needed something to wake them up. Just yesterday, they were only two minutes away from being eliminated and leaving Las Vegas for good.

Puerto Rico’s future depended on the outcome of the Argentina-Panama game and things weren’t looking good. With over two minutes remaining and Panama up seven points, it looked as if Puerto Rico wouldn’t be able to sneak into the second round of the FIBA Americas Tournament which meant no chance to redeem themselves from an embarrassing 1-6 record (including the Tuto Marchand Cup), but when Argentina stormed back to eventually blow out the Panamanians in overtime. The Puerto Rican team got an injection of new life.

“We definitely have a second chance and we understand that. It’s a chance that the sport’s given us and we have to take advantage.” Said Carlos Arroyo.

Take advantage they did as they opened the game on a 14-4 run. The Puerto Ricans would lead by 11 at halftime and would see that lead swell to 25 points. Elias Ayuso scored 24 points for Puerto Rico. Peter John Ramos (!) and Filiberto Rivera both had 14 points, Arroyo finished with 11.

Brazil on the other hand, went from being an undefeated powerhouse just two days ago, to being blown out by 37 points by the Americans and now defeated handily by a Puerto Rico team that wasn’t even supposed to be there. How quicky fortunes can change; Puerto Rico looks like a team to be reckoned with and Brazil’s luster has definitely been muted.

There was some good news for Brazil though – Leandrinho Barbosa shook off his awful performance against the Americans and a rough first half against PR, finishing with 34 points, 26 in the second half, on 10-for-20 shooting and 12-for-13 from the free throw line.

Argentina 86: Venezuela 63:
With the absences of Manu Ginobili, Andres Nocioni, Fabricio Oberto, and Walter Herrmann, no one was sure how Argentina would fare in this tournament. Yes, they still have Euroleague superstar Luis Scola and Carlos Delfino, but could those two prop up the defending champions? Keep in mind that Delfino has played only sparingly for the national team and only this year started getting playing time in the Piston rotation.

Carlos Delfino continues to answer the critics. The Toronto Raptor had 19 points and 11 rebounds and Argentina hit 14-26 three-pointers in an 86-63 victory over Venezuela. Argentina continues to fill the holes left by their NBA counterparts with lesser-known players; particularly one of the best Euroleague point guards Pablo Prigoni, as well as Diego Logrippo, and Paolo Quinteros.

However, this time it was Roman Gonzalez. The 6-11 center contributed 21 points on 9-of-11 shooting to lead Argentina, who remains as the only other unbeaten team besides the USA. The two teams will meet Thursday to close out the second round.

Canada 95: Uruguay 88
It goes without saying that when you come across upstart Uruguay in this tournament, you’ll have to deal with Esteban Batista, their physical yet mobile 6-10 center who came into the second round as the leading scorer and rebounder (23 and 14.5) of the tournament.

Canada decided to fight fire with fire as they used their size to physically battle Batista – limiting him to 16 points on 6-15 shooting and more importantly, only 6 rebounds. In the previous four games, Batista was averaging five offensive rebounds a game, against Canada, he only had one.

Big respect to the trio of Canadian frontcourt players that kept Batista in check while still contributing offensively – 6-10 center Jesse Young had 22 points, 6-9 Levon Kendall had nine points and nine rebounds and 6-11 Samuel Dalembert had 10 points, five rebounds and three blocks for Canada.

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