THE FLATS – Will Jose Alvarado join the Puerto Rico national team attempting to qualify for the Olympics this summer? … Marcus Georges-Hunt and Kuwait Club face deciding game 3 in WASL-Gulf League Final … Moses Wright shining in Turkish League playoffs … more in this week’s #ProJackets Report.
ALVARADO TO REPRESENT PUERTO RICO THIS SUMMER?
The number 16 team in the FIBA World Ranking Men, presented by Nike, is nine-time Olympic participant, Puerto Rico. The Americas side finished fourth at the 1964 Olympics but have not reached the Games since 2004.
Puerto Rico headed to the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 hoping to reach at least the Quarter-Finals for the first time since 2002. The Americas side opened the tournament with an exciting 101-96 victory over debutant South Sudan. Puerto Rico were battered by 17 points in the second game against Serbia before finishing the opening group stage with an 18-point win over China.
In the Second Round, Puerto Rico prevailed in a battle with rivals Dominican Republic 102-97 to start the group. But Puerto Rico could not come up with a win over Italy in the final group game, losing 73-57 to miss out on the Quarter-Finals.
They ended up taking 12th place which qualified them for the OQTs as one of the best 16 remaining teams that did not advance directly to the Summer Olympics.
Puerto Rico last played at the Olympics in 2004 as they haven’t been able to get through the OQTs since then.
José Alvarado (PG 6’0″) is more than welcome to represent the island! 🏀🇵🇷💪 #NBA #NewOrleans #Pelicans #TeamPUR #FIBA https://t.co/yO5r8CfNRK
— Pu🇵🇷rto Rican Basketball Radar 📡 (@Auto1974) May 1, 2024
GEORGES-HUNT AND KUWAIT CLUB MOVE TO GAME 3 IN WASL-GULF LEAGUE FINAL
Marcus Georges-Hunt and his Kuwait Club lost game 2 of the FIBA WASL-Gulf League season final Monday night, 77-73, to Manama, forcing a deciding game 3 in the series.
Manama regained control in the third quarter as they took advantage of Kuwait Club losing Hamad Hasan due to foul trouble, and appeared to be cruising to the victory when they built a 70-56 lead with less than seven minutes remaining in the game.
Moh Hasan, however, spearheaded an uprising, nailing a quartet of three-pointers in a 16-4 retaliation to pull his side to within just a point, 73-72, with 1:28 to go.
Kuwait Club pulled off a big stop on the other end after that by blocking Ebanks, and Marcus Georges-Hunt took it strong to the cup moments later and got fouled with 54.1 seconds left, giving themselves the opportunity to retake the lead as he was sent to the charity stripe.
The veteran winger, however, made just one of his two shots and only tied the game at 73-all. They did prevent Haji from having a good look on the basket but they couldn’t capitalize, with Mohamed Ameer forcing Georges-Hunt to an airball which Ebanks hauled down.
That proved to be the beginning of the end for Kuwait Club as Ebanks went on to give Manama the lead for good, and with Pointer whamming the nail in the coffin to seal the triumph.
“The shot felt good. It rattled in, as you can see, and it came out. Not gonna beat myself up. We got a Game Three,” said Georges-Hunt.
From FIBA Basketball
WRIGHT AND OLYMPIACOS IN TURKISH LEAGUE PLAYOFFS
On a night when Olympiacos Piraeus’s bench players outscored the starters 54-26, the Greek side still came up short to FC Barcelona as it lost 80-82 in overtime in Game 3 of their best-of-five series in the 2023-24 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Playoffs.
Big men Filip Petrusev and Moses Wright were the two main contributors off the bench for the Reds, combining for 34 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks. For Petrusev, he had his best scoring night since joining Olympiacos in a mid-season transfer, netting 18 points, while Wright’s energy certainly made up for the absence of Nikola Milutinov, who didn’t see a second on the floor.
The majority of Wright’s points came in a fruitful second quarter as he scored 11 points to help Olympiacos turn a 13-13 score at the end of the first period into a 37-32 lead at the break. Petrusev, meanwhile, had 8 points at halftime. Olympiacos was not getting much out of its starters, so the impact of Petrusev and Wright was definitely a big plus.
Both Wright and Petrusev got limited game time in the third, albeit the American was able to tack on two more points to his tally, but they were at the fore of everything good for the Reds in the fourth as Barcelona mounted a comeback on the back of impressive three-point shooting. In overtime, however, things didn’t quite go to plan for the two bench players as their impact faded and Barcelona managed to secure an 80-82 win after Jabari Parker went 2 for 3 from the line with 0.5 seconds to go.
From Euroleague Basketball