SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador, CMC – Jamaica agonisingly missed out on the second round of FIBA World Cup Pre-Qualifiers Americas 2023 when they went down 68-66 to El Salvador in their final game of the competition here Monday.
In the decisive contest at the Adolfo Pineda Gymnasium, the Caribbean side closed within one point at 66-67, courtesy of a Joel Bailey layup with three seconds left on the clock but ran out of time to make any further inroads.
They finished fourth in the five team group with two wins from their four outings, only above their winless Caribbean counterparts Guyana.
Costa Rica topped the group with Nicaragua second and El Salvador, third, to all advance to the next round of the qualifiers.
Jamaica were powered by Omari Johnson who scored 18 points and pulled down eight rebounds while Marcel Robinson chipped in with 12 points and eight rebounds.
Bailey, meanwhile, scored 10 points while Warren Williams bucketed nine points and hauled in 10 rebounds.
For the hosts, Roberto Martinez led with 19 points while Jose Araujo and Ronnie Aguilar both scored 11. Carlos Arias weighed in with nine points and grabbed 12 rebounds.
Jamaica held a narrow three-point lead, 18-15 at the end of the first quarter but El Salvador hit back to tie the game at 20 early in the second quarter.
In an attritional match-up, Jamaica surged ahead again to lead 31-27 with five minutes on the clock and led until the final minute when the hosts countered to level at 36 – a deadlock which remained at half-time.
A Mauricio Lahud jumper gave El Salvador the lead early in the third quarter but Adrian Mike responded from behind the arc to send Jamaica ahead 39-38.
Aguilar gave El Salvador the lead for good in the quarter with a hook shot with 3:51 remaining, and they held off Jamaica to be ahead 52-49 at the break.
In an exciting final quarter, Jamaica closed within one at 51-52 with 8:49 left but then saw El Salvador stretch their lead to 60-52 eight at 5:38 left.
A superb 14-8 run by the Jamaicans then set up a thrilling finish but El Salvador held on.
