Uruguay 82 vs. Puerto Rico 79

August 25, 2007 � Las Vegas, Nevada

Esteban Batista�s 34 points and 15 rebounds led Uruguay past Puerto Rico 82-79 on Saturday night at Thomas & Mack Center. Uruguay improved to 2-1 in tournament play while Puerto Rico�s record dropped to a disappointing 1-3.

Puerto Rico, which led by as many as 19 points earlier in the contest, held a 61-53 advantage heading to the fourth quarter. With eight turnovers in the final stanza and 28 for the game, however, Puerto Rico�s sloppy play would be their downfall.

With the lead now gone and his team trailing by three, Jose Barea stepped to the line to shoot two for Puerto Rico with 2.4 seconds remaining. After coming up short on the first free throw, Barea missed the second on purpose by firing it off the front of the rim. Luis Reyes corralled the rebound for Puerto Rico and retreated feverishly to the three-point arc. Reyes turned and fired what would have been the game-tying three-pointer, but his shot was no good and Uruguay escaped with the win.

Barea, who returned tonight from a two-game suspension led Puerto Rico with 18 points.

ALBERTO ESPASANDIN, URUGUAY HEAD COACH
What did you think made the difference in this game?
The difference was Uruguay's defensive attitude between the first and second quarters. In the first quarter, Uruguay gave too many advantages and Puerto Rico was able to break our defense aggressively. That made us lose focus offensively, it generated anxiety, which led to bad plays and bad shots. That's why I think Uruguay began to change the game through a strong and aggressive defense, the way you should defend on the international level. Puerto Rico has great players - in their level and play - and we can't make mistakes against them. Uruguay has to defend very strongly to be able to win. I think Uruguay did that, they did it very clean - with one minute left, Uruguay had zero team fouls. That demonstrates Uruguay's offensive capability. I think their efforts were huge. To do what they did takes a lot of heart, technique and tactic and I think our players were able to do that.

What was the situation with the free throws at the end of the game?
We had three team fouls, Puerto Rico shot and then we looked up at the screen and it said five fouls. That's a mistake from the scorer's table - either not putting the fouls there before or putting too many fouls afterwards.

Does winning two very close games give your team more confidence for the upcoming matches?
I think so. I think that this win gives us more confidence. We started off with a low confidence level. Any basketball team, especially a team as good as Puerto Rico, can take a lead over us, but that's not a reason to step back from the way we play. We have to just work harder to stay in the game. This game definitely motivates us for the upcoming matches.

Can you talk about the Puerto Rico - Uruguay rivalry?
I think the last time Uruguay defeated Puerto Rico was twelve years ago, in the Pre-Olympic qualifying tournament of 1995. Puerto Rico has an important level of basketball, so for Uruguay to compete and compete at that level is a big deal. Uruguay, as you know, is a small country, so everything takes a lot of effort from our players. This win makes us very happy - makes our entire country very happy - and it's an important milestone for basketball in the country.

JAVIER MARTINEZ, URUGUAY
What did you think made the difference in this game?
I think that we had to make 16, 20, 30 points to realize our team had the capability and potential to win clean, like coach said. We gave it all and knew that winning this game would put us in a good position for the match tomorrow against Mexico. We tried to flip the coin - we came in weak, but in the end we won and we won an important game for us.

What was the situation with the free throws at the end of the game?
We had three team fouls and the call was off. We don't know what happened but it was definitely a mistake.

MANOLO CINTRON, PUERTO RICO HEAD COACH
What was the difference in the game and what's your emotional state now?
There were two different games. In the first half we had 11 turnovers, 10 in the first quarter. We did an exceptional job in the second quarter. Then we went into the third quarter and had another 10 turnovers; we had 29 total in the game. Low execution, we didn't rebound, we didn't use our body against Batista and we played poorly offensively. We couldn't keep up with their good execution in the second half. We have to wait for Mexico and Panama now to see what happens.

How frustrating is it to have the opportunity to win and then losing it in the last 20 minutes of the game?
There are no words to describe that. Anyone who coaches knows how hard it is to lose, especially when you have a 19 point lead. And knowing you can't do anything about it is frustrating. We couldn't execute in the end and we didn't rebound. We did everything to lose.

We've clearly seen some animosity among team members; can you talk about what's happening internally?
We have 12 people with different egos. Everyone is looking for space to perform and we're having problems with our training. Some don't want to share the ball; others want to touch it more. We saw it in Angelo's outburst and well, we're talking to FIBA to see if they can allow us to play with five balls in the next tournament.

JUAN JOSE BAREA, PUERTO RICO
I've seen you make long shots many times in college. Was the purpose of that last play to draw the foul and stop the clock or did you realize how much time was left, or did you determine you were going for a long distance three?
I knew they were going to try to foul so I tried to shoot it up before they fouled, but the referees saw it another way.

As an NBA player, and now as part of the National Team, can you tell us about what's going on in the Team and the overall attitude?
I've played in sub-19, sub-17, and sub-21 teams. It's very different than this team. The pressure is higher and you're playing with veterans, which is more difficult. But I think it's really been more about luck. We've had bad luck in this tournament. Internal problems is normal on all teams, those are small things, it happens in the NBA, it happens everywhere, it's more about bad luck. We'll keep trying to see what happens.

You had a great second quarter, what happened in the second half?
I give them a lot of credit; they made some great adjustments at half-time. We weren't as lucky in the second half and so we lost.