Jamaica’s men’s team was assured of a place in today’s quarter-finals of the FIBA 3×3 AmeriCup tournament in Miami, Florida, after upsetting the higher ranked Chile 21-14 in their opening Pool C game yesterday.

The Jamaican men, who came into the tournament ranked number 14, had to qualify earlier in the day after beating Caribbean neighbours Aruba and Haiti in qualifying draw A and were promoted to the main draw in the event which is the first hurdle for qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The Jamaican women were not as lucky, however, as they split their games against Guyana and Guatemala in qualifying and were eliminated.

It was the first time that Jamaica were entering teams in this format of basketball and their win over the sixth-ranked Chilean team will be a big boost as they were scheduled to meet Brazil later last night.

Brazil had also beaten Chile to confirm their progress along with Jamaica.

In their first Pool C game, Romaine Thomas-led Jamaica with eight points, Jabulani Newby scored six points, Teavaunn Prince scored five points and Kevin Foster scored two points.

Earlier in the day the Jamaican men beat Aruba 22-11 and then got by Haiti 21-11 to book their passage to the pool play.

In the first game Newby scored nine points and Thomas scored seven to lead Jamaica to their win over Aruba, while Foster scored five points and Prince had one point.

The scoring was more balanced against Haiti where Foster and Prince both got six points while Thomas scored five and Newby, four.

The women’s team beat Guyana 20-16 in their first game then lost to 13-19 to Guatemala when a simple win or losing by less then three points while scoring at least 18 would have seen them through to the main draw.

Antoinette Bannister led Jamaica with 11 points against Guyana, Jose-Ann Johnson scored seven points, Ashlee Gordon scored two while Tracey-Ann Kelly failed to score.

Bannister topped the Jamaican scoring in the loss to Guatemala with nine points and Johnson scored four while both Gordon and Kelly failed to score.