By Lefteris Moutis/ moutis@eurohoops.net
The experience of Puerto Rico decided the outcome of the first semifinal of Belgrade’s pre-Olympic qualifying tournament and the 77-70 win over Latvia.
With two minutes left of the clock the score was tied at 68, but Latvia scored only two points until the end of the game, giving to Puerto Rico the chance to close with a 9-2 run. With 35 seconds left of the clock, Carlos Arroyo with a three made the score 73-68 and there was not coming back after that. He made sure of it with a steal and an amazing assist to Josh Holland for the dunk that made the score 75-70.
Arroyo finished the game with 14 points and 5 assists, J.J.Barea added 14 points, 5 assists and the impressive number of 7 rebounds, while Holland with 15 points was the top scorer of the winners. Janis Timma had 16 points and 8 rebounds from the losing side and Dairis Bertans added 11 points and 7 assists, but he had just 1 out of 6 threes and missed one of the most crucial shots of the game in the closing seconds.
The long range shooting proved to be a huge problem for Latvia which had in total 3 out of 26 shots made from the three points line.