Virgin Islands prevail and keep improving
BUENOS AIRES (FIBA Women’s AmeriCup) - The VI squad quickly recovered from their first-day loss against Argentina and achieved their first victory, defeating Venezuela 79-53 in Group A of FIBA AmeriCup 2017. This success was also the first one it their brief experience in this type of tournaments. Although this is a team that just came out from winning the Centrobasket hosted by their country, their sports project is relatively new.
¡Repasa 👀 lo mejor de la victoria de Islas Vírgenes 🇻🇮 sobre Venezuela 🇻🇪 en el #AmeriCupFemenino2017! pic.twitter.com/ZMfgTOAbbq
— FIBA en español (@FIBA_es) August 7, 2017
“Today we played together, we played as a family. And we moved through the ball and when we got everybody involved that’s when it started to feel better,” point guard Imani Tate pointed out. Tate was the game’s outstanding player; making 26 points, seven rebounds, two passes and three steals. The Virgin Islands have been coached for two years by Puerto Rican William Colón, and have demonstrated a fast game when attacking and dominated the board with Natalie Day and I’tiana Taylor, who together took 25 rebounds.
“Just to make a statement, take what the defense has given us. You just gotta play hard all the time. You gotta go out and give it your all,” said Tate in relation to what’s coming for her and her teammates.
This Virgin Islands roster is practically the same than the one that took the medal at Centrobasket. Such result confirmed that women’s teams also had a lot to contribute to their nation’s sports. “It’s been a hard time trying to adjust but I think after the first Centrobasket, the first couple of games, we got it and now we know what to do,” she assured.
What's your best characteristic and what still needs improvement? Tate answers: “I think we’re fast, we’re speedy and we just get out there on defense, and I think that’s what we do really great. I think that offensively, we just have to move the ball a little bit better because once we moved the ball better, we got open shots for everybody.”
“Definitely our best asset is our speed. First, we're strong in the defense, and then we try to build strong counterattacks. What we should improve is the ball movement in the offense in order to manage jump shots, because although we played well today, it’s still quite hard.”
Tomorrow, Virgin Islands will open the competition’s third day with a game against Colombia at 1:35 (host country hour).
FIBA
