Imani Tate had a triple-double in the Virgin Islands Win Over the Dominican Republic Photo Credit: Fiba.Basketball
The Virgin Islands overcame a double digit first half deficit to defeat the Dominican Republic 81-76 in their third game of the CentroBasket Championships behind an Imani Tate 20 point, 14 rebound and 12 assist triple-double.
The Virgin Islands had trouble dealing with the full court press that the Dominican Republic implemented to open the game and turned the ball over four times in the first five minutes of the game. The trouble keeping possession allowed the Dominican Republic to jump out to an 18-8 lead.
The Virgin Islands started taking better care of the ball and trimmed the deficit to 20-17 with just under three minutes left in the first quarter. A three pointer at the end of the first quarter gave the Dominican Republic a 29-23 lead heading into the second quarter.
The Dominican Republic scored the first five points of the second quarter to open another double digit lead. The Virgin Islands got the margin between the teams quickly down to 5 but the Dominican Republic went on a 8-0 run and led 42-29 with 5:03 remaining in the first half. The Virgin Islands chipped away at the deficit and only gave up 4 points in the last five minutes of the quarter and trailed 46-42 at halftime.
The Virgin Islands took their first lead since they led 2-0 in the first quarter after Naja Ngongba hit a three-pointer that made the score 51-50. The team scored a transition basket by Ms. Tate on the next possession and led 53-50 with 5:47 left in the third quarter and forced a Dominican Republic timeout.
After the timeout a Brittney Matthew three-pointer for the Virgin Islands extended the margin to six with just under four and a half minutes left in the third quarter. The Dominican Republic went on a 12-3 run and with just over two minutes left and gained a three-point lead. Going into the final quarter the score was 66-64 in favor of the Dominican Republic.
The teams stayed within striking distance for the entirety of the fourth quarter. With the score tied at 75 and three minutes left in the game the Virgin Islands made the push that led them to victory. Ms. Matthew hit a three pointer with 2:25 left in the game and Ms. Tate hit a two point shot with 1:52 left to increase the lead to five. Akia Frett hit a free-throw to increase the lead to six with :28 seconds left. The Dominican Republic did hit one free throw with 21 seconds left but that was as close as they got during the final stretch of the game.
Anisha George was the second leading scorer with 16 points, Ms. Ngongba had 15 points and Ms. Matthew has 12 points to round out the Virgin Islanders with double-digits.
Ms. George had 12 rebounds and completed her third double-double of the tournament.
The Virgin Islands out-rebounded the Dominican Republic 53-39 in the biggest difference between the two sides on the team stat sheet with 19 of those boards coming on the offensive glass leading to 21 second chance points. In comparison, the Dominican Republic only had 8 second chance points.
The Virgin Islands will play their last game of the Centrobasket tomorrow on Sunday night at 9 on the FIBA Youtube Channel against El Salvador.
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