Brazil heads to the Paris Olympics after a 19-0 victory in the final 3:21 of the first quarter set the tone for what became a surprisingly easy 94-69 victory over Latvia in the first of the tournament’s four finals men’s basketball qualifier being played S…
Brazil heads to the Paris Olympics after a 19-0 victory in the final 3:21 of the first quarter set the tone for what became a surprisingly easy 94-69 victory over Latvia in the first of the tournament’s four finals men’s basketball qualifier being played Sunday.
Bruno Caboclo led Brazil with 21 points and Leo Meindl added 20. Caboclo made a 65-foot 3-pointer to end the first quarter – one in which Brazil went 8-for-8 from beyond the arc to take a 34-11 lead and surprise the local fans in Riga, Latvia.
Rihards Lomazs scored 15 for Latvia, who got 14 each from Rolands Smits and Arturs Zagars.
Brazil will be placed in Group B of the Olympics, with games against France (July 27), Germany (July 30) and Japan (August 2) in the opening phase. The last three places in the 12-team Olympic field will be decided later on Sunday; Croatia visits Greece, the Bahamas visits Spain and Lithuania visits Puerto Rico, with the winners of these contests also heading to Paris.
The four-time gold medalist USA, France, Germany, Japan, Serbia, South Sudan, Canada and Australia have already qualified for the Paris field. France qualified as host country; the other seven teams on that list qualified based on their results at last summer’s World Cup.
After the World Cup, 24 teams remained to compete for the last four places. They were decided in the winner-take-all qualifiers, which began last week.
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