SANTO DOMINGO (Dominican Republic) - Jazmon Gwathmey, Jennifer O'Neill, Isalys Quinones and Pamela Rosado have been mainstays on Puerto Rico's senior national team, but there's a new member of the team who is emerging as a rising star.

"It's a great experience. It's a blessing to finally put on this jersey."

Arella Guirantes is making her debut for Puerto Rico in this FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup Qualifying Tournament, and she has quickly showed that she could be the next mainstay on the roster.

In two games, the 24-year-old is averaging 17.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game, including a 25-point, 5-rebound showing against Belgium.

Arella Guirantes

Proud to represent

Guirantes, whose paternal grandfather was born in Puerto Rico, shared her feelings about what it meant to represent the country.

"It's a great experience. It's a blessing to finally put on this jersey," said Guirantes. "I was just thinking before the [Belgium] game. It kind of hit me right during the national anthems. I felt like I had more pride wearing this jersey and I owed it to more than just myself to play hard."

"So, it's a beautiful feeling. It's great to play with these girls and be coached by these coaches here, and I'm just grateful for the experience."

Competing against the world's best

Puerto Rico has competed twice on the world stage; one appearance came at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2018, where they finished in 16th place out of 16 teams (0-3) and the other at the Tokyo Olympics where they finished in 12th place out of 12 teams (0-3).

Guirantes knows that Puerto Rico may be undersized when they compete against some of the best women's national teams, so they have to find ways to make up for that.

"I think we can improve on just running with those big teams, pushing the ball up the floor," she said. "It's hard if they're making baskets, so that was a difficulty for us [in the loss against Belgium]."

"It was hard for us because they're getting a bunch of own boards and they're scoring in the paint, so we're not able to run in transition."

"But if we can get stops and get in transition and limit second chance possessions, I think we'll be moving in the right direction together."

Puerto Rico is in a do-or-die situation for the last game of this qualifying tournament, as the winner of their game against Russia (0-1) on Monday at 19:00 CET will book the 12th and final spot up for grabs at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 in Sydney.

Puerto Rico is looking for their second World Cup appearance, while Russia is looking for their fifth appearance and their first since 2010. 

FIBA