VALDIVIA (Chile) - Chile and Cuba opened Group B play at the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Americas Pre-Qualifiers with victories at the Coliseo Antonio Azurmendi in Valdivia, Chile. The four national teams are competing for two of the four available spots in the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Americas Qualifiers, which will begin in November. Here’s how Day 1 unfolded:
Cuba 83 - 63 El Salvador
During the opening game of the day, Cuba leaned on the performance of its leading players to comfortably defeat El Salvador, a team that had a solid first half but faded physically down the stretch. The Cubans used their height advantage to dominate the boards (50–31) and score 41 points in the paint. Pedro Bombino, Yasiel Rivero, and Reynaldo García shouldered the load. Bombino posted a double-double to emerge as the game’s top performer with 16 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 assists. Rivero and García contributed 16 and 13 points, respectively.
Eleven of the twelve Cuban players who took the court scored, helping their team finish with a 47% field goal percentage. For El Salvador, Brayan García and Ernesto Rodríguez stood out as the team’s scoring leaders with 22 and 21 points, respectively. Between them, they accounted for 8 of the team’s 9 total three-pointers, each knocking down four from beyond the arc.
Chile 101 - 59 Ecuador
A 16–0 run at the start of the second quarter allowed Chile to pull away from an Ecuador squad that fought hard in the first period (19–19) but could not keep pace and ultimately fell to the hosts. Chile was lethal from beyond the arc, hitting 20 three-pointers on 37 attempts (54 percent), and outperformed their opponents across all statistical categories. As many as 11 Chilean players got on the scoreboard, with five reaching double figures. Sebastián Carrasco led the way with 15 points and 7 assists.
Also contributing on offense were Felipe Haase (13), Sebastián Carrasco (12), Sebastián Herrera (12), and Felipe Inyaco (11). For Ecuador, Johu Castillo finished with 20 points and 7 rebounds. Action continues on Saturday with two matchups: El Salvador vs. Chile – 7:00 p.m. (local time) Ecuador vs. Cuba – 9:30 p.m.
FIBA