Despite loss, Jamaicans still leading regional qualifiers for a spot in 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup

Jamaica’s senior basketball team suffered their first defeat of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 Central American and Caribbean Pre-Qualifiers on Saturday (April 17), when they were blown 54-92 by Nicaragua.

The loss came despite fiery shooting from Warren Williams, who scored 24 points and nine rebounds.

Unfortunately, he was the only Jamaican in double figures as Marcel Robinson only scored eight points and Michael Rogers six in the lop-sided encounter.

Williams’ output was dwarfed by the Nicaraguan trio of Jared Ruiz, Norchad Omier, and Larel Pacheco.

Ruiz led the way with 26 points but also filled out the rest of the stat sheet with nine rebounds and five assists.

Omier and Pacheco were perfect from the field, scoring 14 and 12 points, respectively. Omier also grabbed 13 rebounds to register a useful double-double.

Following their wins over Costa Rica and Guyana, Jamaica did not field a full-strength line up with qualification for the next round already secured and paid the price.

They trailed 11-21 after the first quarter and 21-49 at half-time.

Jamaica won the third quarter 14-12 but that would be as close as they would get as the Central American team proved to be too dominant, winning the final quarter 31-19 to complete the rout.

Nicaragua scored 24 points off turnovers and 62 of their 94 points were scored in the paint.

They scored 30 points from fast breaks. Meanwhile, Jamaica only managed six points from turnovers and 28 points in the paint. Twelve points were scored in fast breaks.

With two wins and a loss, Jamaica remain atop the regional standings with five points and will play their next match against El Salvador in the round table on Monday.