MEXICO CITY (2015 FIBA Americas Championship) - The 2015 FIBA Americas Championship got underway on Monday and what a day it was.
Venezuela showed their power and versatility over Cuba, Uruguay shocked the Pan-American Games gold medalists Brazil, Argentina defeated Puerto Rico in a classic and the hosts got their title defence underway with an impressive win over the Dominican Republic.
Venezuela had no trouble taking control of the opener to defeat Cuba by the score of 73-52. Right from the get go, experience played a big role and Venezuela looked loose and confident against a Cuban team that could never achieve any offensive rhythm. They fell big in the first part of the game and remained in control throughout to win in their debut.
Heissler Guillent was instrumental in the Venezuelan victory with 14 points.
"It's good to start the tournament with a win but we have to improve on our three-point shooting and lower our turnovers," he said.
Brazil were in for a rude awakening when they faced Uruguay, who delivered the first upset of the tournament with a strong defensive effort and four players scoring in double figures in a 71-57 win.
"I told the players that first we had to convince ourselves that we could win. I'm very proud of this effort," said Uruguay head coach Adrian Capelli after the victory.
In one of those classic showdowns of the Americas Region, Puerto Rico and Argentina added another chapter to the history books of the competition with an exciting opening day match-up.
Argentina recovered from being down 14-2 in the first quarter with great defense and a fantastic performance from legendary Luis Scola to take a 91-86 win.
It was a tight, back-and-forth game that the Argentineans were able to pull away from in the last quarter.
Puerto Rico tried to respond, but had an erratic last stretch of the game that did not allow them to get back in the game.
Scola led the way with 22 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists.
To close the day, defending champions Mexico dominated Dominican Republic 84-66 in a return to form performance in front of more than 10,000 fans in the Palacio de los Deportes in Mexico City.
Orlando Mendez had a great performance with 24 points, including 6 three-pointers in the defeat of the Caribbean national team.
The two teams that reach the Final of the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship will qualify directly to the 2016 Rio Olympics, while the teams that come in third, fourth and fifth will clinch places in the2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTS).
This changes if Brazil finish among the top two. In that case, the third-place team will advance to the Rio Games. If they finish in the 3rd-5th places, then the 6th-place team will advance to the 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
All games can be watched live on livebasketball.tv (registration and subscription required; geo-blocking may apply; click here for the full list of territories and broadcasters) and highlights will be available on youtube.com/fiba.
Go to fiba.com/Americas2015 for full coverage of the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship.
FIBA