The Dominican Republic is through to the second round of the Pre-World FIBA-Americas Basketball Championship that is taking place at Santo Domingo’s Virgilio Travieso Soto Basketball Stadium. In Group B, the DR moved on with a three games win to one loss record. The DR only lost to Argentina, which is the Olympic champion. In the second round, the DR will play first against the United States. Teams participating in the second round are: DR, USA, Argentina, Panama, Venezuela, Brazil and Puerto Rico. Mexico and Canada were eliminated in the first round.
The DR has a chance of becoming one of four teams to win a slot in the 2006 World Basketball Games scheduled for Japan in 2006. Argentina has already secured its participation for the Americas.
The Dominican team members are Luis Flores, Luis Felipe Lopez, Francisco Garcia (Sacramento Kings, NBA), Jack Michael Martinez, Amaury Fillon, Marlon Martinez, Jaime Peterson, Otto Vantroy, Andy Williams, Jose Vargas, Joel Ramirez and nationalized Dominican Josh Asselin. The Dominican team is directed by Keith Smart (Golden State Warriors assistant coach), Fernando Teruel and Jose Dominguez.
See http://www.fibaamericas.com for the schedule and to follow the games online.