Cuba loses to Mexico in Men's Basketball World Cup Americas Pre-Qualifiers

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 24 (acn) Cuba lost 72-66 to Mexico in their debut in the FIBA Men's Basketball World Cup China 2019 Americas Pre-Qualifiers.

The Caribbean side won the first half 36-32 mainly thanks to the great performance by pivot Javier Justiz, but they amounted to 19 losses in the game and could not stand the final push of the locals led by Hector Hernandez and Juan Toscano, who scored 23 and 15 points respectively.
Justiz was the match MVP when scoring 25 units, with 19 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 blocks, and was seconded by PF Jasiel Rivero, who scored 13 points, but the rest of the team couldn´t properly offensively support them.
Cuba´s next match will be next Sunday at Havana´s Sports City Coliseum against Puerto Rico, who lost 78-85 their first match to USA.
FIBA implemented this year a novel qualifying system to the 2019 WC which includes 80 squads that will play home and away matches in six windows.