The Dominican national basketball team traveled to Madrid yesterday, Thursday 21 August 2014 to play its final preparation games before the start of the FIBA World Cup. The DR, which is ranked 26th in the world, is one of 24 teams that qualified for the championship. The warm-up games are against Senegal, the Philippines and Estonia on 22, 24, and 25 August 2014, as reported in El Caribe.
The DR played team USA at the Madison Square Garden on 20 August, losing 105-62. Coach Orlando Antigua and his assistants Bill Bayno, Ron Sanchez and Jose (Maita) Mercedes traveled to Spain with team members Jack Michael Martinez, Francisco Garcia, Eulis Baez, Eloy Vargas, Edgar Sosa, James Feldeine, Ronald Ramon, Manuel Fortuna, Orlando Sanchez, Edward Santana, Victor Liz, Juan Coronado and Gerardo Suero.
The DR’s first game is against Ukraine on 30 August 2014 in Bilbao. The DR is in Group C that also includes Finland, Turkey and New Zealand and the USA.