AMMAN (Jordan) - You can take the game away from Guam, but never their spirit.

“Although we’re only able to host one game before the pandemic, we always told ourselves that whenever there’s an opportunity to play, we’ll be there and we’ll do the best we can,” EJ Calvo, head coach of the Guam national team, said after their win over Hong Kong.

"We’re happy to be here and hope our small island of Guam is happy that we got our first win."

Guam’s energy and determination were felt right from the start of the game as they jumped out to a 20-3 lead to start the game and cruised their way to dominating 103-83 win. It took a minute or two to get things going for Guam, but in the end, they really got into their groove.

“We kinda started slow but we picked it up,” Jericho Cruz, who had 24 points, said of the team’s efforts. “Hong Kong gave us a good run, but as a team, we stayed together and we played it out.”

The team has stayed together for quite a while now, even before their long-distance journey to Amman for the remaining games of the FIBA Asia Cup 2021 Qualifiers. They were in deep preparation prior to the tournament up to a month before this game, highlighted by a high-performance training camp in Los Angeles which allowed the team to bond and improve together.

“This was a priceless learning experience for all of us,” Calvo said of the training camp, as per Pacific Daily News.

"It was a lot of fun man, learning from the trainers at the highest level and just being a student of the game and gaining as much knowledge as I could from them," added star guard Daren Hechanova, who corralled 15 rebounds in today’s game. "And being with the team, having the other players there, it was good to see all the other dudes from off-island."

The effort proved to be worthwhile as Guam was able to run away with a balanced effort from the entire team.

While this might seem like just another win in the Asia Cup Qualifiers from a casual fan’s perspective, it actually meant much, much more to the players in white who were able to come away with a win.

This victory right here was Guam’s first-ever in the Asia Cup Qualifiers.

“It’s huge for us,” said coach Calvo. “This is the first time that we ever played in a FIBA Asia Cup Qualifier, we’ve been excited about getting to this moment.”

“We’re happy to be here and hope our small island of Guam is happy that we got our first win.”

This might be only the first win for Guam in the Qualifiers, but they’re obviously hoping for many more in the future and maybe even some in the Asia Cup should they qualify. It has been a long journey that they’ve taken, powering through the Pre-Qualifiers, and this win will be yet another major milestone in the history of Guam basketball.

“We’ve come a long way to be here and we came to play,” Calvo said. “We have a lot to work on, a few things we have to improve on. Not playing as many games over the past year or so, we’re excited that we were able to play this game and look forward to the next one.”

FIBA