FIBA Americas Championship 2nd Semifinal – Argentina overcome a late rally to beat Puerto Rica: Pt-2
Link for Part-1: http://www.senore.com/FIBA-Americas-Championship-2nd-Semifinal-Argentina-overcome-a-late-rally-to-beat-Puerto-Rica-Pt-1-a96549
Carlos Arroyo reduced the deficit to two early in the second and after Lois Scola retaliated with a two, Narvaez canned two straight to tie the game at 33. Seconds later, Jose Juan Barea scored another two to give his team the first lead after the initial possession. Puerto Ricans continued to dominate in the rest of the period, which finished with them leading by 44-40.
After coughing up a double digit lead in the first quarter and being reduced to a 4 point deficit in the second, the Argentineans went all out after the break. Daniel Santiago increased Puerto Rican’s advantage to 48-40 in the first minutes of the third frame. However his consecutive shots gave vent to a 17-6 Argentinean run, capped by a Pablo Prigioni three, which gave them a 57-54 lead. Puerto Rica manage to knot the game a minute after with a trey, but Argentina again reeled off a 9-3 run to head into the final quarter with a 6 point advantage and all the momentum.
Ginobili and Scola combined for 5 points early and with 8:59 left in the game, the Argentineans once again raced to an 11 point lead. They hung tough till the midway point and were leading the game by 9.
The Puerto Ricans had no plans to back off just yet.
Powered by 4 points from Arroyo, they struck with 8 unanswered points with 70 seconds to make it a two point game at 77-75 with 4:21 to go. Two and half minutes later, Keyed by Santiago, they evened the game out a 79.
Manu Ginobili got a chance to give Argentina a two point lead on the next possession from the stripe. He managed to make good on only one and the ball was pounced by the Puerto Ricans. Carlos Arroyo attempted a jumper 15 seconds later, but to his relief, his team got an offensive rebound. Time out was called immediately. However, after returning from the break, Arroyo again missed a two and to add insult to injury, he fouled Prigioni.
Prigioni feeling the heat of the moment fumbled his first free throw. He did score on his second one to give the Argentineans an 81-79 lead with 6 seconds to go.
With time running out J.J. Barea found the ball and had a last attempt at the rim from the long range. His desperation shot however landed wide and the host held on in an exhilarating encounter and booked a place in the finals against Brazil. Brazil thrashed Dominican Republic 83-76 in the first semifinals and will enter the finals as the only team to have knocked down Argentina in the tournament.
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