PUNTA CANA — The U.S. Virgin Islands men’s basketball team got off to a slow start against the Dominican Republic and never recovered in their loss 89-75 at the Hard Rock Fillmore Ballroom in the Dominican Republic on Sunday afternoon.
Georgio Milligan scored a team-high 20 points to lead four players in double figures for the USVI Men’s National Team in the losing effort at the FIBA AmeriCup Qualifiers of 2022.
Ivan Aska added 18 points and eight rebounds, Walter Hodge had 12 points and Laron Smith 11 for the U.S. Virgin Islands, currently 51st in the latest FIBA world rankings.
“It was a simple thing — we didn’t shoot the ball very efficiently,” said USVI National Team head coach Donald Bough. “We didn’t get too many opportunities at the free throw line, and we got clobbered on the offensive boards. We need to challenge our bigger guys to get a little more rebounding, [and] we need to be a bigger threat at the center position. We had a lot of opportunities to get rebounds, and we didn’t capitalize.”
Eloy Vargas had a double-double for the 19th-ranked Dominican Republic (2-1 in Group C) with game highs of 23 points and 12 rebounds. Sadiel Rojas added 15 points and nine rebounds, and Gelvis Solano had 12 points and seven assists for the winning team.
After the loss, the USVI Men’s Team falls to 1-3 in the FIBA AmeriCup Qualifiers.
https://www.fiba.basketball/americup/2022/qualifiers/team/Virgin-Islands