Puerto Rico whip Jamaica 104-71

MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico, (CMC):

Jamaica's men's team suffered a heavy loss at the hands of hosts Puerto Rico in preliminary round basketball action at the Central American and Caribbean Games on Monday.

Trailing from the outset, the English-speaking Caribbean's top squad endured a 104-71 defeat to the Puerto Ricans in Group E at the Arquelio Torres Ram'rez Coliseum.

The Jamaicans found themselves down 15-29 at the end of the first quarter before storming back into contention in the second, pouring in 23 points to the home side's 18, for a half-time score of 38-47.

They could not sustain this effort, however, and the local team outscored them 29-16 in the third period to lead 76-54. It was a matter of closing out the final period for the 33-point rout to be completed.

Standout game

Jamaica's Garfield Blair had a standout game with 14 points and 10 rebounds while Kimani Ffriend had 13 points and eight rebounds.

More support came from Andre Smith who scored 12 points and Garfield Johns came off the bench to chip in with 11.

For the winners, Jose Barea scored 27 points.

In the other match, the US Virgin Islands were beaten 103-98 by the Dominican Republic with Walter Hodge getting 27 points for the losers.

English-speaking counterparts the British Virgin Islands fared no better, as they lost to Panama 80-50.