The Dominican Republic team defeated the Virgin Islands 100-56 on Monday at the Palacio de los Deportes Virgilio Travieso Soto to finish undefeated with a 2-0 record in the First Qualifying Window for the 2023 World Basketball Championship.
For the second night in a row, captain Víctor Liz led, this time with 23 points, a well-spread offense of the home team, which included five men in double figures in scoring.
The giant center Eloy Vargas escorted Liz with 16 points, in addition to capturing 15 rebounds, also Gerardo Suero, in a good performance, scored 14, Adonys Henríquez, who shot 7-4 from the 3-point line, and Andrés Féliz, contributed 12 units each.
In the losing cause for the Virgin Islands, Jamal Samuel was the best man on offense with 13 points, followed by Iván Aska with 11.
At halftime, the Quintet went to the break with a solid 15-point lead on the scoreboard (46-31), having dominated both periods relatively easily.
The giant Vargas stood out for the Dominican Republic with 1 1 points 9 rebounds in that part of the challenge. The host Dominican Republic (2-0), along with Canada (2-0), Virgin Islands (0-2) and Bahamas (0-2), make up Group C of the Americas, in the competition that awards a berth for the 2023 Basketball World Cup, to be played in Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan.
The 12 players who made up the Dominican team are Eloy Vargas, Gelvis Solano, Mike Torres, Andrés Feliz, captain Víctor Liz, Gerardo Suero, Adonys Henríquez, Brandone Francis, Sadiel Rojas, Juan Guerrero, Jonathan Araújo and Jeromy Rodríguez. Along with Melvyn López, head coach of the national team, the coaching staff included José -Maíta- Mercedes, David Díaz, Daniel Seoane, Jonathan Matos and Luis Guzmán, video coordinator.
The delegate is Junior Páez (Yipi), the doctor is Eliezer Luvin, Carlos De León was in charge of properties and the physiotherapist was Marvin Zamora.
The general management of the national team is composed of the president of the Dominican Basketball Federation (Fedombal), Rafael Uribe, journalist José Monegro, director of the newspaper El Día, and Fernando Hasbún, president of Grupo SIN.
