DOM - Martinez: We will be fine

MAR DEL PLATA (FIBA Americas) - Dominican Republic captain Jack Michael Martínez sent a message to his people after the side advanced to the Quarterfinal Group with three wins and one loss.

"Save those bad comments on our team.

"Those who are at home doing nothing, waiting for our mistakes, we don't need that bad vibes," said Martínez, who leads the tournament in rebounds with an average of 12,5 per game.

According to Martínez' comments, the critics the team received after the 73-72 loss to Canada united the players to go out and beat Brazil for the first time of FIBA America's history.

"We need our 10 Million people to be for us.

"None of us want to lose a ball, nobody wants to miss a shot, Charlie Villanueva doesn't want to play like he did and (Francisco) García started to score points," continued the 2,03 metres centre.

Dominican placed first in Group A. They beat Venezuela, Cuba and Brazil, while their only defeat was against Canada.

Martínez showed himself happy of having played as a team. He referred to the team's defensive improvements against Brazil and also said "If we help each other, we will be fine. We are a tall team, athletic, fast and we also have good shooters."

Dominican Republic have never had a Basketball team in the Olympic Games.

"This is our great chance. It would be historical for our whole country.

"With our performance during the preliminaries, we told the big teams to be careful with Dominican Republic, but we know we haven't done anything yet," said Martínez.

FIBA