BY KWESI MUGISA, Staff Reporter
JAMAICA'S WOMEN BASKETBALL team clinched the final qualifying spot in the 2007 FIBA Americas tournament when they defeated Puerto Rico 71-67 last night at the Centrobasket Tournament in Mexico City.
Jamaica joined Mexico and Cuba as the three qualifiers and will compete against several South American teams at the FIBA America's tournament which is a qualifier for the 2008 Olympics.
Simone Edwards led the charge for the Jamaicans with 17 points, while captain Oberon Pitterson had 13. The teams hopes of progressing to the next round of the Olympic qualification process had hinged solely on beating the Puerto Rican team in the tournament's third-place play-off.
"We got off to another slow start, but this time we did a lot better in terms of our intensity on both ends of the floor." said a satisfied Rerita Essanason, coach of the women's team.
"I'm still a little concerned about our focus for the entire games though and we really need to get back into training and work on that ahead of next year's game." she said. "I'm not worried about our offence but our defensive intensity is going to need some work." she added.
A loss in the semi-final round to defending champions Cuba had set up a do-or-die game for the Jamaicans.
They finished runners-up in Group B, courtesy of a loss to Puerto Rico in the preliminary round, and as a result had to face defending champions Cuba in the tournament's semi-finals on Wednesday night.
The Cubans had topped Group A after getting by Mexico in the last game of the group stage.
The team, recently crowned Caribbean Champions, albeit in the absence of Cuba, proved to be no match for their neighbours and were easily swept aside 87-64 in that semi-final encounter.
In the other semi-final, Mexico, led by 29 points from Erika Gomez, got by Group B winners Puerto Rico 72-69 to not only book themselves a place in the finals, but set-up a rematch between themselves and the Cubans.
Jamaica's next tournament will be the Central American and Caribbean Games in Colombia from July 25-29.
The male team will begin a similar quest for Olympic qualification when it plays its Centrobasket tournament in Panama between July 4-8.
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