JAMAICA will miss out on a place in the semi-finals of the 18th Centrobasket Women’s Championship being played at the José “Pepe” Huyke Colosseum in Morovis, Puerto Rico after losing their second consecutive match Wednesday night.

Twenty-six-year-old power forward Maria Orozco Gollaz scored a game-high 22 points for Mexico to down Jamaica, 65-44, and secure their second straight win.

After Angelee Latouche scored the first basket for Jamaica to lead 2-0, the Simone Edwards-coached girls trailed for the entire match.

The Mexicans led 17-8 in the first quarter and 29-19 by half-time with Nadia Bibbs Moreno and Orozco Gollaz leading the charge for the Mexicans and Shenneika Smith for Jamaica.

At 6:17 in the third quarter, Tarita Gordon sank her only three-pointer for Jamaica to close in on their Spanish-speaking rivals, 25-29.

But soon after the Star Girls fell behind, allowing the Mexicans to drive to 40 points with the Jamaicans still on 15 with 2:12 left in the third quarter.

Jamaica’s Sasha Dixon fouled with 19 seconds left during the penultimate quarter which ended 48-31 in favour of the North Americans.

In the final segment, Mexico shattered Jamaica’s confidence when they led by 21 points with just four minutes and four seconds remaining in the match.

Orozco Gollaz put the icing on the cake with a three-pointer, her second from three attempts.

Jamaica, on the other hand, muffed their last five consecutive three-pointers and failed to make a fight of it. Tarita Tiffany Gordon topscored for Jamaica with 18 points, with Smith adding 13 points and seven rebounds.

Mexico and Puerto Rico will advance to the semi-finals from Group A where they will join Cuba from Group B.

In other results Wednesday, Virgin Islands beat Trinidad & Tobago, 58-49; Cuba overpowered Dominican Republic, 101-67, and the hosts stomped El Salvador, 83-29.

Jamaica were scheduled to play El Salvador yesterday in their final Group A preliminary match.