Uruguay 88, Panama 84 (OT)

Panama and Uruguay got the action started at Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of University of Nevada Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon, and it was Panama which started hot. Jaime Lloreda connected on seven-of-10 field goals and tallied 15 first-half points, helping to build a 45-34 lead for his club by the intermission. The key shot of the half, however, was a three-pointer by Leandro Garcia of Uruguay as the first-half buzzer sounded.

Building on that momentum, Uruguay outscored Panama 24-to-11 in the third quarter to not only get back in the game, but to take a 58-56 lead heading into the final stanza. After a seesaw fourth quarter in which neither team could pull away, Uruguay scored to tie the game at 75-75 with 1.8 seconds remaining. After Panama turned the ball over with an errant inbounds pass, Uruguay couldn�t convert from under its own basket and the contest headed to overtime.

Getting seven points from Martin Osimani in the extra session, Uruguay held off a late Panama charge and grabbed victory number one of the tournament by a final count of 88-84. Uruguay�s Esteban Batista notched a game high 26 points, while Lloreda paced Panama with 21.

Notes: Panama shot just 17 of 36 from the foul line (47%) while Uruguay connected on 27 of 36 free throws (75%).

URUGUAY HEAD COACH - ALBERTO ESPASANDIN
You were 13 points behind at one point in the game. What did you do to make a comeback?
We improved our offense. I think it was also important to recover our defense. We came into the second half with a much more aggressive attitude. We were able to attack Panama's strategy, which was to focus on our weaknesses in the first half. That helped us gain confidence in the second half in our offense and I think Uruguay played a great second
half.

Why do you think the situation was different in the first half?
Basketball games can last forty minutes and so Uruguay had the chance to recover and get back in the game. It's not unusual for a team to close a 13 point gap. Still, despite the Uruguay's great second half, Panama was able to make it back in the last few minutes of the game. As I mentioned games last 40 minutes but in the end, Uruguay was able to win the game in overtime.

NICOLAS MAZZARINO
How would you categorize this game?
When we were on our way to Vegas we knew that Panama was going to be an important team for our development in the series. It was a tough game, but we reached our objective which was to win the game. And now we'll have to rest and wait to see what happens with the rest of the series.

What do you expect from tomorrow's game against Argentina?
Tomorrow will be another totally different game. We know them well, but the reality is they have more talent than we do. It'll be a difficult game, but we'll be ready to play full force. We want to win and hope it'll be a close game.

PANAMA HEAD COACH - VICENTE DUNCAN
They won the game on the line. We missed some key free throws at the end especially in the regulation time. In overtime we miss some key free throws.

On missing Lloreda in overtime:
He is our heart. He is our main guy on the inside. We lacked power on the inside right after he fouled out. I thought the defense was fairly good. We gave them a couple of easy shots that we talked about at halftime. Other than that we did miss our big guy on the inside.

Were the free throws abnormally low for you?
We had a good tournament in Rio, we shot pretty good in Rio. We have been practicing free throws everyday. That is how we lost this game, on the free throw line.