Jamaica showed that their last win over Puerto Rico was no fluke as they beat their more fancied opponents a second time Monday night, 97-92, in their Group B match at the FIBA Basketball World Cup Americas Qualifiers in San Juan.

It was Jamaica’s second win over Puerto Rico four days, having defeated them 92-90 on Friday and moved to four points, the same as Canada, which dismissed The Bahamas 94-88.

Chase Audige had a game-high 20 points and was ably assisted by Romaine Thomas with 18 and Kofi Cockburn with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Tyran DeLattibeaudiere got 15 points.

Stephen Thompson Jnr top-scored for Puerto Rico with 18, Zakai Zeigler made 17 and Alexander Morales hit 25 points.

From the opening whistle one could not tell which team was the higher ranked team as Jamaica, ranked 95 in the world, dominated the 16th-ranked Puerto Rico and led 27-19, 54-41 at the half time break and at one point established a 14-point lead as Romaine Thomas hit 12 points and Chase Chase Audige 11 point as Jamaica were shooting 63 per cent from the three point range.

The JamRockers never looked back and opened up a 20-point lead midway the third quarter as the home fans went silent with a three pointer from Andrew Thelwell.

But Puerto Rica rallied impressively and cut the deficit to seven entering the fourth quarter outscoring Jamaica 26-20 and back in the game as the fans got boisterous. But a huge three-pointer by Thomas restored Jamaica’s 10-point advantage leading 79-69 with little over nine minutes remaining.

But once again Puerto Rico responded, reducing the lead to six points, 87-81, with five minutes remaining. It was getting tense just as the first game but two clutch free throws by Cockburn established some breathing space at 89-81.

At 91-83, Thelwell made a steal that led to DeLattibeaudiere layup and regained that comfortable 10-point gap with three minutes left.

But some poor decisions by Jamaica and poor defending let Puerto Rico back in the game at 95-90 with a minute remaining and it was cut further to three points on the back of two free throws by Alexander Morales, making it 95-92 with 58 seconds on the clock.

A steal by Audige, who was later fouled with 27 seconds left, sealed the game for Jamaica as they expertly ran the clock down, earning two free throws with 10 seconds left which DeLattibeudiere converted to give Jamaica another memorable win.