Puerto Rico are champions of men's basketball at the Central American and Caribbean Games, closing out a physical final with a 94-75 win over the Dominican Republic at Arena Banreservas. The game was tight for three quarters Puerto Rico led by no more than four points through the third before a 35-point fourth quarter blew the game open and turned a competitive final into a comfortable gold-medal celebration.
Felipe Quinones (198-G-2008) was the story of the night, scoring 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting, including 5-of-8 from three, and adding nine assists for good measure. Vincent Stewart (207-C-2007) was nearly as efficient with 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting, and Dwight Gaines (156-PG-2009) added 19, going a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. Fernando De Los Santos (192-G-2006) put up a monster individual effort for the Dominican Republic in the losing cause, finishing with 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting, and Ronald Garcia added 16, but the Dominicans simply had no answer once Puerto Rico's fourth quarter got rolling.
Belize claimed the bronze medal earlier in the day, holding off Mexico 80-70 behind Josiah Moseley (203-F-2006)'s 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting and Douglas Langford (201-F-2006, agency: One Motive Sports)'s 14 points and five offensive rebounds. Alejandro Munoz (203-F) led Mexico with 20 points on an efficient 6-of-8 shooting, and Ronnie Selleaze (191-G) added 18, but Mexico could never quite close the gap against a Belize side that got exactly the kind of complementary scoring it needed from Tevaughn Dawson (188-G-2006) and Ian Parham.
In the classification games, Nishon Thomas (F-2008) delivered the individual performance of the tournament, scoring 40 points on 16-of-25 shooting to lead Nicaragua past Panama 84-70 and claim fifth place; David Watson (185-SG-2007) added 19 for Nicaragua, while Ethan Brown (2007) led Panama with 16. Guatemala closed out the tournament in seventh place, beating Jamaica 66-47 behind Eric Figueroa (198-F/C)'s 13 points and Cesar Catalan (190-SG-2007)'s 11 assists; Aiden Holness led Jamaica with 16 in defeat.