Brazil Fights to the Finish For 71-64 Win Over Uruguay

June 27, 2010 - San Antonio, Texas

In the most intense game of the 2011 FIBA Americas U18 Championship, Brazil (2-0) defeated Uruguay (0-2) 71-64 and became the second team to qualify for the 2011 FIBA U19 World Championship. Canada, with its win earlier today, became the first.

"This was a big rivalry game, they are a very good team," said Brazil head coach Walter Roese, who is an associate coach at the University of Hawaii. "We knew it would be a hard game, and very emotional. We came in here a little flat, but we only had to win by one point, and we did. Our goal was to qualify for the world championship, which we did and now we'll try to win this tournament."

Raúl Togni Neto and Felipe Vezaro netted 14 points each for the Brazilians, who dominated the first quarter 18-14.

"The most important thing was not being the top scorer but winning the game," said Neto. "Being the top scorer is good but we just want to win the game. It was a big rivalry game but I tried to focus on the game and just tried to play like it was any other game."

A great defensive effort by the Uruguayans made their offensive work a lot easier and the first half ended tied at 34 and at the end of the third quarter it was 48-48.

A three pointer by Felipe Vezaro broke a 52-52 tie with 6:22 and started a 7-0 run that ended with a dunk by Lucas Nogueira to be up 59-52. After that the Uruguayans never recovered while Brazil sealed the deal with the attack of Raul and Lucas while a three pointer by Felipe put them away.

In the loss Ivan Loriente had 23 points.

"The hardest part was when we were five to seven points behind," stated Brazilian guard Felipe Taddei. "Then there was a time out and we got together and we said ‘hey, we worked so hard to be here we cannot let them open it up, we are going to win this game in the last five minutes.''