After Jamaica moved a step closer to the final round of FIBA World Cup Qualification, captain Kentan Facey believes they’ve made a significant step in providing more exposure to basketball locally.

The ‘Jamrockers’ created further history on Monday following their 97-92 win over hosts Puerto Rico in their second group game of the Americas Qualifiers in San Juan.

Led by Chase Audige’s 20 points, Romaine Thomas’ 18 points and Kofi Cockburn’s 15 points and 12 rebounds, Jamaica registered consecutive wins over Puerto Rico to move to four points in Group B, joint top with favourites Canada, who had back-to-back wins against the Bahamas.

Facey, who registered nine points and 10 rebounds, says the team’s unity was vital in overcoming the favoured Puerto Ricans.

“I think we spent a lot of time together, so that in itself just helped us build some chemistry,” he said. “It was just us staying together as a team, doing activities together, and trying to build some sense of confidence going into the game, knowing every player has each other’s backs and that’s one of the biggest things that I’ve come to notice on this team — there’s no big egos or anything like that, it’s just a group of guys coming together to represent Jamaica.”

Facey’s home town of Trelawny is one of the many parts of the island still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Melissa. He says the team was extra motivated to lift the spirits of the Jamaican people.

“It’s incredible to give our people something positive to celebrate,” he said. “We’ve had this terrible storm that we just came through, so it’s incredible that we’re able to represent and put our flag to wave high and have that sense of pride.

“We came in and we showed a lot of people, people in our country included, that didn’t really believe that basketball could bring so much exposure to our country. We came out and we proved that it’s a very valid sport in Jamaica and if we keep on building and improving, that could be something that we could be known for worldwide.”

With just four games remaining, starting with Bahamas on February 26 and Canada on March 1, two wins for Jamaica would see them secure one of the three spots in the second round where they will fight for one of six spots at the 2027 World Cup in Qatar.

While recognising their historic run so far, head coach Rick Turner is urging the team to remain focused on their main objective.

“We still have a lot of work in front of us,” he said. “We’re just trying to put one foot forward at a time. Obviously we’re trying to advance out of the pool. That’s what we want to do, and getting two wins to start pool play is important but we can’t let off the gas.

“We’re definitely in the toughest pool in this tournament so there’s no let downs.We’re confident, we’ve been confident, we’re where we belong, we step up on the floor expecting to win every time we play so this just reinforces the things that we talk about.”

Jamaica’s Tyran De Lattibeaudiere (top) hangs on the rim after a slam dunk during their FIBA World Cup qualifying match in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Monday. (Photo: FIBA Media)

Puerto Rico’s Christopher Ortiz (left) tries to score over Jamaica’s Kentan Facey (second left) as teammates Arnaldo Toro (second right) and Kofi Cockburn look on. (Photo: FIBA Media)