The Dominican Republic is among the first teams to move to the econd round in FIBA World Cup in The Philippines, Indonesia and Japan. The Dominican men’s team finished off Group A with a perfect 3-0 record after beating Angola 75-67 on Tuesday, 29 August 2023. The Caribbean nation won the game despite its top player, NBA Karl-Anthony Towns having to sit out 25 minutes for foul trouble in the first four minutes of the game. Towns is ranked 10th in the number of points scored during the first round.
In his opening statement in the press conference after the Angola game, Towns highlighted the importance of the advance to the second round when so many people had written the team off. Towns also spoke highly of coach Nestor (Che) García and his fellow team members.
The best scorers in the game against Angola were point guard Andres Feliz with 17, team captain Victor Liz with 13, Towns with 8 and Angel Delgado with 8.
It is only the first time the DR leads its group when advancing to a second round. In previous World Cups, in Spain (2014) and China (2019), the Dominican team had also made the second round.
Dominican team point guard Andres Feliz stresses that from here on the competition gets tougher, as reported in El Nuevo Diario.
The Dominican Republic joins defending champion Spain, the United States, Canada, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and Montenegro, the other seven teams that move to the second round. Eight teams have been eliminated — France, Finland, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Angola and Mexico.
Diario Libre reports that the advance to the second round of the FIBA World Cup is an important step in the efforts for the team to earn a slot in the 12-team 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The advance to the second round in the World Cup 2023 qualifies the DR for the Pre-Olympic Tournament. The World Cup will be qualifying the two best ranked teams of the Americas for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
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Angola vs Dominican Republic press conference
30 August 2023