The Dominican Republic defeated South Korea 95-85 in an exciting back and forth game at the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament under way in Caracas, Venezuela, today, Tuesday 3 July. The DR will now face Russia on Wednesday, 4 July at 2pm. Yesterday Monday 2 July, the Korean team lost to Russia, 91-56 in the opening game of the tournament. <\/p>\n
The DR needs to face some phenomenal competition in its toughest basketball tournament ever. The 12 tournament contenders include several of the world’s top teams that are vying for just three London Olympics berths. <\/p>\n
Coming into the tournament, the DR had defeated Puerto Rico, another contender for a berth, for the gold in the Centrobasket 2012 held in Puerto Rico in June. <\/p>\n
The teams in the Caracas qualifier include Greece (No. 4 in the world), Lithuania (No. 5), Russia (No. 11), Angola (No. 15) and Puerto Rico (No. 16). The Dominican Republic is ranked No. 25.<\/p>\n
The tournament will conclude July 8 with the all-important third-place\/fourth-place game. The winner will join the two semifinals winners in the Olympics (July 29-August 12 in London). The loser will head home with a heartbreaking exclusion the Summer Games.<\/p>\n
The top two teams from the Dominican Republic’s three-team group (Russia and South Korea) will advance to the quarterfinals and face one of three teams from Group D (Macedonia, New Zealand and Angola).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Dominican Republic defeated South Korea 95-85 in an exciting back and forth game at the World Olympic Qualifying Tournament under way in Caracas, Venezuela, today, Tuesday 3 July. The DR will now face Russia on Wednesday, 4 July at 2pm. Yesterday Monday 2 July, the Korean team lost to Russia, 91-56 in the opening … <\/p>\n