The national basketball team did the impossible, against the best rival and in the worst scenario, they demonstrated once again the claws of Dominicanness and as a gift on the anniversary of National Independence, they qualified for the World Cup.
As in such an independence battle in 1844, the Dominican team made history in Mar de Plata, obtaining a 79-75 victory against Argentina, after trailing by as many as 17 points, in what could be classified as the most memorable victory in history. of Dominican basketball, managing to get the ticket to the World Basketball Championship in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.
With the result, Argentina, a first level basketball team with world and Olympic champions, who had the presence of the stars Facundo Campazzo and Gabriel Deck, are eliminated from the World Cup.
It will be the first time that a team from Argentina has not participated in a World Cup since 1982.
Jean Montero, the youngest player on the Dominican team, once again behaved like a true man by registering 22 points and leading the tricolor offense for the third consecutive game.
Montero was seconded by Gerardo Suero, who finished with 13 points and Andrés Feliz who added 11 points.
Gabriel Deck was the most outstanding for Argentina with 27 points. Nicolás Laprovittola, Facundo Campazzo and Marcos Delia scored 10 points each.
Nobody is a prophet in their own land
The manager Néstor García was fired by the Argentine team in the qualifying process and yesterday he was responsible for guiding the Dominican Republic to victory against his own country of origin.
The Dominican Republic won both matches against the Argentines in the qualifying windows.
The first one held on November 10 at the Palacio de los Deportes ended 80-69, which represented the first game under the command of Néstor-Ché-García.
It will be the fourth time that the Dominican team will participate in a World Cup tournament and the third in a row.
The first participation occurred in the Philippines in 1978. Then 36 years later, in Spain in 2014 and for 2019 in the World Cup in China.
Other results
On the last day of the qualifier, the Canadian team beat Venezuela 74-57, to improve its record to 10-2.
Brazil outscored the United States 83-76.
Mexico defeated the Uruguayan team 82-69.
Puerto Rico beat Colombia 87-80 and Panama beat the Bahamas 88-66.
The classifieds
After yesterday’s day, the 7 teams classified for the World Cup are the following: Canada, Dominican Republic, Venezuela for group E and the United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico in group F.
Brazil from group F, qualified for the World Cup for being the fourth best place in both groups.