Mexico come back in the second half to defeat Russia / News - Basketnews.com

Credit: FIBA Credit FIBA

Mexico (1-1) kept their hopes of the Tokyo Olympics alive by defeating Russia (0-1) 72-64 (18-16, 13-20, 19-7,22-21) in a hard-fought game of Group A at the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Split, Croatia.

Player of the Game EFF 15 Gustavo Ayon Points 11 Accuracy 4-11 Rebounds 7 Assists 6

Both teams came into the game from different situations. Mexico have just suffered a close loss to Germany one day ago, while for Russia, it was their first game of the tournament. The match started off slow, as evidenced by the score, which was only 2-2 with 6:57 to play in the first quarter.

Mexicans shook off the rust first, as they managed to lead for most of the first quarter. But in the second, the Russians started slowly to take over. At the 8:32 mark, Ukhov nailed a 3-pointer to give his team a lead (21-18). And as Mexico's shots (especially from 3-point range) stopped falling, Russia managed to build a 5-point lead going into a break (36-31).

The situation changed dramatically after halftime. Mexico won the third quarter 19-7 behind their tightened-up defense and 11 points from Francisco Cruz.

The final quarter started with Orlando Mendez's 3-point shot, which increased Mexico's lead to 10 points (53-43). Teams kept exchanging baskets, but Mexico managed to hold to their lead and

Francisco Cruz led the winners with 21 points, while Semen Antonov was Russia's top scorer with 12.

POST-GAME PRESS CONFERENCE NOTES

Russia head coach Sergei Bazarevich: "This is not how we wanted to start the tournament—a bad loss for us. It looked like we controlled the game after 20 minutes, but the third quarter killed us because we had ten turnovers."

Mexico leading scorer Pako Cruz: "They started to pressure a lot; they have good guards. The difference was the second half when we started to push the ball a little better."

UP NEXT

Russia: will play Germany on July 1.

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