Panama 95, Mexico 90

August 24, 2007 � Las Vegas, Nevada

Panama notched its first win of the tournament, improving to 1-2 overall by knocking off Mexico 95-90 to tip-off day three of action at the 2007 FIBA Americas Championship. The back-and-forth affair wasn�t decided until the final minute, when missed three-pointers and made free throws would prove to be the difference.

Trailing 92-88 with one minute remaining, Mexico�s Roberto Beck canned a jumper to shave the deficit to two. Panama�s Agustin Pinnock then converted one-of-two free throws at the other end to push the lead back to three, 93-90. With time winding down, Mexico�s James Pedroza was freed up by a screen to get a good look at the game-tying three-pointer, but his shot was off the mark. Panama�s Jaime Lloreda pulled down the rebound and was fouled. He would hit both free throws to ice it for the Panamanians.

Pinnock�s game-high 30 points led the victors, who also got strong contributions from Lloreda (19 points) and Enrique Garcia (13 rebounds). Beck�s 20 points were tops for Mexico, which fell to 1-1 in tournament play.

VICENTE DUNCAN, PANAMA HEAD COACH
[Question inaudible]
We talked in the locker rooms and discussed Mexico's strategy, which is suffocating. They also have a very good defensive system. So we decided that we had to first break their defense and then score. That's what we did and it gave us good results. We played our defense too, which is similar to Mexico's.

So you think this win puts Panama in the running?
In this type of tournament it's important to always think that you're playing your last game, particularly because there's nothing written on paper. We lost our game with Uruguay and knew there was another chance for us to win the next one. Now that we did, we'll see what type of results we have moving forward.

This is the third game in three days, and coming off of yesterday's performance, were you concerned about playing against Mexico and their tempo?
We played a game that was exhausting in the first two quarters because we wanted to match their intensity, which we did. I was just a little bit concerned. A couple of guys had bad knees and we had to make a decision about playing them or not. But we had to match their intensity out there and that was the biggest thing we talked about in the locker room and pre game set up. We also had to execute, every time they had a break we had to score.

DANILO PINNOCK, PANAMA
How can you play so differently from one day to the next?
Sometimes you just have to play - and the ball will sometimes go in and sometimes it won't. We want to forget yesterday's game. We didn't play well and Puerto Rico played very well, and that's always a bad combination. They have a very good team, one of the best teams here. We just have to come together and keep playing.

Is it difficult to play with a new point guard?
Joel has been with the team for a while, and he's usually the back up. I think he's doing a great job. He's helping out the team and obviously he's out here with the National Team doing well.

What did you tell your team after the game yesterday?
I told them that the most important thing was to go out there and have fun. Yesterday we were tight, at the Uruguay game we were tight and we let the game get away from us. I just wanted to make sure today we had fun. When we're playing good, we're running, we're playing good defense, then we're having fun. A lot of smiles on the court and that's what you saw today. Yesterday you didn't see that.

It seems that the pace at which Panama plays can cause the team to make mistakes; do you think you can play slow?
Because we're probably the smallest team here, we don't really want to play slow too much. I think we can play slow if we have to. We have good big guys we can put in, but we'd rather run. Look at the size of all the teams; we're the smallest team by far. At the opening ceremony that's the first thing we realized. We don't have any 7 footers, we have no really tall guys, so we don't really want to slow it down we want to run. That's why I think Mexico was a good match up for us, because they wanted to run too. It was a fast-paced and high-scoring game. If we had to play slow I think it'd be difficult, but I think we can manage.

NOLAN RICHARDSON, MEXICO HEAD COACH
Do you think the fact that you trained Panama in the past affected this game?
I don't think so. I think Panama played hard. I think that the fact that I coached them gives them more incentives to play harder, but you have to give them their credit, they played very well. We played, but we didn't play as well as we've been playing. Panama played very well today. They shot the ball 51%; they scored enough points to win. If you give up 95 points or more, you shouldn't win.

[Question inaudible]
As I tell my players, of all the time I've coached, they have never lost a game. I lose games, they win games. I made the substitution calls and even though I don't shoot a shot or take a charge, I take full responsibility for all losses. That's why it bothers me so much. If I can eliminate that part about losing, then I'd feel a lot better. Winning - they are the winners, losing, it's my fault.

[Question inaudible]
We've been able to implement. If you look at the stat sheet, which I don't really care about, we committed 30 fouls, and they committed only 17. As a matter of fact at the end of the ball game, we still weren't shooting the shots. So they played a foul-free type of game. If you look at most of the stats from most of our games, we probably shoot more free-throws because we're at the basket and play an up tempo game so that gives you the chance to be at the line more than your opponent. Today was just the opposite. I think what hurts us in the ball game is that even though we know what we want to do, the energy level was different. We had wide open shots and lay ups that just didn't go in. It's one of those things that whatever you did, it just wasn't there. This was our 22nd ball game and this was the first time they lost. So you can't say they don't understand it just wasn't there today.

Does losing ever get easier?
Losing to me is losing and I hate losing more than anything. The day that I stop hating losing, I don't ever want to coach again. I have a sign that's always been in my gym, my office, my house that says - there are those who play and those who play to win, and that's me. And I want players who play to win.

VICTOR MARISCAL, MEXICO
What happened to you on the court?
We started off strong, but then we let them breathe and think that they could defeat us, and we lost total control. The Panama team played really well, they converted a lot of shots, and we missed a lot. They had two on one or three on one, and our shots were just not going in. They were pressuring us the entire time and they knew how to control the game.

Your qualification is now in danger, how do you feel about that?
We have two games coming up against Argentina and Uruguay and we have to win those games. We have to work hard. The worst team stays out so we have to move on and win those games to secure our qualification.

Do you think you were too confident coming into this game after the win against Puerto Rico?
We actually talked about that earlier and our team doctor said he thought we were coming into this too confident. If we're here we need to recharge our batteries and not think that just by being here, that's enough to win. We defeated Puerto Rico but that's nothing. We defeated Argentina three times in the World Championship and then we were eliminated and Argentina moved on. So we talked about that before the game, but I guess it just wasn't our day today. We weren't converting the shots. We kept thinking we had time to recover, but then when the time was upon us, it was too late and we couldn't make a come back.