JAMAICA’S men’s basketball team went down to a 68-62 loss against hosts Dominican Republic in their opening game of the Centro Basketball tournament on Tuesday.

Roy Hibbert topscored for Jamaica with a game-high 19 points, followed by Garfield Blair with 15.

Charlie Villanueva led the home team with 13 points, while Manuel Fortuna, Kelvin Pena and Jack Michael Martinez supported with 10 points each. Martinez also had 13 rebounds.

The Jamaicans started well, scoring a lot of long-ranged shots, but the Dominicans rallied to take a 21-17 lead after the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Hibbert took charge, scoring nine points to bring his tally to 11, as the Jamaicans led 39-32 at the half.

Jamaica struggled on offence in the third quarter as the hosts intensified the pressure; however, at the end of the period they still held a three-point (50-47) advantage.

In the final quarter, a three-pointer by Martinez put the hosts 54-52 up and they

never relinquished the lead thereafter.

The Jamaicans were scheduled to play British Virgin Islands in thier second game last night.

The Dominican Republic were winning their second in as many matches.