DOM/URU - Dominican Republic comes back and beats Uruguay

SAN JUAN (2009 FIBA Americas Championship) - Dominican Republic came back in the final quarter, led by the trio of Charlie Villanueva, Al Horford and Luis Flores to defeat Uruguay 80-74 to open the Quarterfinal stage of the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship.

Villanueva scored 19 points, Horford 17 and Luis Flores 14 for the Dominicans who improve to 2-2 in this stage. Uruguay had Leandro Garcia Morales with 28 points, all of them in the first three quarters and Esteban Batista with 16 and 8 rebounds.

The Dominicans won the final quarter 24-10 and made a 14-4 run that ended with a three pointer by Flores to tie the game at 70. Uruguay regained the lead but at the end the turnovers were key as the Dominicans took advantage of them to score and seal the game.

In the first half both teams started to score from inside but Uruguay had a better performance shooting from ourside, led by Leandro Garcia Morales, who always gave them some room when the Dominicans tried to establish the lead.

The first quarter finished 15-14 in favor of Uruguay as Garcia Morales netted 6 points and Reque Newsome had 5. Al Horford led the Dominicans with 4 points.

In the second period Leandro Garcia Morales started his show shooting from long distance and two straight three pointers gave Uruguay a 35-31 lead with 1:42 lead. After that Martin Osimani scored five straight points and ended up 40-33 at half. Garcia had 16 points (5-7 3 pt) and Esteban Batista 8, 6 of them scored in the second quarter. Horford and Charlie Villanueva had 6 each for the Dominican Republic who shot 10-24 from the field.

Garcia Morales scored 12 points in the third quarter to put keep the Uruguayans up. They were depending on the perimeter offense and Batista inside. The Dominicans made a quick rally in the final minutes and the third quarter finished 64-56.

Luis Modestti
FIBA Americas

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