Trinidad and Tobago come up short in Fiba 3x3 AmeriCup

Despite another valiant performance, Trinidad and Tobago’s men’s national basketball team were unable to get into the knockout phase of the Fiba 3x3 AmeriCup tournament in Leon, Mexico, over the weekend.

Competing in pool C, the team of Chike Augustine, Tyrik Singh and brothers Akheel “Smally” Boyd and Ahkeem “Fato” Boyd, went under 21-16 to Canada in their opening pool match on November 28, before suffering another close loss to South American opponents Argentina (21-17) in their second clash on the same day as they missed out on a quarterfinal spot.

Ahkeem was feeling it from deep against Argentina and had a game-high ten points, knocking down four of six shots from beyond the arc to keep his team in the hunt. Meanwhile, Ahkeel scored six points but struggled from the perimeter as he missed his three shots from beyond the arc.

Needing a victory to stay alive in the tourney, TT had a fast start and took a 4-0 lead a minute-and-a-half into the matchup thanks to buckets from Ahkeem and Augustine, who registered his lone point of the game.

TT was first to ten points and even opened up a 12-7 lead when Ahkeem drained his third two-point shot. With steady contributions from Juan Fernandez (seven points), Alejo Maggi (six points) and Martin Molina (five points), the Argentinians kept plugging away and scored five straight points to tie the game up at 12 apiece before Ahkeem added another two-point shot to give TT a slight 14-12 edge.

With consecutive buckets from Ahkeel, TT then assumed a 16-14 lead. The game was tied at 17 apiece with just under two minutes left, and it was Argentina who had the decisive final kick as Molina knocked down a pair of free throws to push the score to 19-17 in their favour, before Santino Mazzucchelli (three points) iced the game with back-to-back buckets to knock TT out of the tourney.

Canada and Argentina moved on from the group in first and second, respectively. Canada moved on to the semis, while Argentina were beaten 21-14 in the quarterfinals by the US who won both the men’s and women’s titles.