JAMAICA missed the chance to secure historic qualification to the final round of FIBA World Cup Qualifying but Head Coach Rick Turner says he’s still confident that his “inexperienced” group will be able to achieve it in their final two games this summer.

The JamRockerz suffered their second-straight loss in Group B of Americas Qualifying, going down 97-81 to the Canada at the National Indoor Sports Centre on Sunday.

Jamaica were only down 27-23 early in the second quarter but their struggling offence and Canada’s dominance saw the visitors fly into a 19-point lead. The Jamaicans tried to fight back but the gap was widened in the fourth quarter as the Canadians went up by 23 with six minutes to go.

The end of the game was made interesting as Jamaica cut the lead to 10 at 91-81 with under two minutes to go, which included two big threes from guard Andrew Thelwell. However, theCanadians held on down the stretch to claim their fourth-straight win and move to eight points in Group B.

Forward Tyran De Lattibeaudiere led the Jamaican offence with 23 points and 11 rebounds off the bench while Marcus Carr top-scored for Canada with 17 points.

Although disappointed with some aspects of the game, Turner says beating Canada would have always been a tough task.

“Some guys have off-shooting nights and sometimes off-shooting nights are created by great defences — and Canada really got after us defensively,” he said. “We don’t have the experience that they have together; that team has played together a lot. They’re the fifth-ranked team in the world for a reason. We’re just that plant just now sprouting out of the ground, that’s where we are — we’re not even close to blooming as a team.

“So, to use a cliche, you tip your cap to a great team and we’ll get better from this. These are the experiences for us that are going to make us better. This is exactly where we wanted to be — we wanted to play against the best — and in short order, we’re going to beat the best.”

Jamaica remain second in the group on six points, just one ahead of Puerto Rico and The Bahamas on five each.

It leaves Jamaica needing at least one win from their final two games against The Bahamas and Canada in July — or hoping Puerto Rico lose both of their remaining fixtures against Canada and The Bahamas — to keep their 2027 World Cup dreams alive.

It’s now a longer road for Jamaica, who could have secured qualification to the final round on Thursday but blew a late lead against The Bahamas. Turner, however, isn’t willing to dwell on the past.

“The hurt from the Bahamas game cannot possibly get more,” he said. “If you have hurt [on a scale] from one to 100, we were at 100 and it’s at 100 still.

“That’s not ever going to change, and there’s nothing we can do about it so we move on from it. We can look back and say ‘would haves’ and ‘could haves’ but now we got a chance to go to Bahamas and turn the tables on them.”

After two consecutive home games Jamaica will now have consecutive away games on July 3 against The Bahamas in Nassau, and July 6 against Canada in Hamilton.

Turner is hoping they’ll get more time to prepare as they seek to become a more cohesive unit.

“We just got to get better, we got to get more consistent, and it starts with the coaching — it starts with me and our staff. We’ve got to get a more clear message about the way we want to play and who we are,” he said.

“It’s difficult in such a short amount of time when we’re such a new team together; it’s really hard to do all that much. These teams like Canada and Bahamas and Puerto Rico, all of whom happen to be in our pool, have been doing this for a long time and so when they’re making adjustments and changing things up, it’s all stuff that they’ve already worked on. We’re doing stuff on the fly [so] the more we’re together, the more we can work on all this stuff.”

Despite their recent disappointments Turner says he doesn’t need to do much to motivate the team as they always have the bigger picture in mind.

“We’re a game away from going to the next round of qualifying,” he said. “We have a chance to play in the 2027 World Cup. Could anyone say that before? No.

“We have a chance to play in the 2028 Olympics. If you’re not motivated by that, what are you doing? We’re going to be motivated — our guys are motivated. I said, ‘Let’s feel bad for ourselves tonight and then tomorrow, let’s start working towards July.’ ”

Jamaica forward Romaine Thomas (right) shoots over Canada’s Thomas Scrubb during their FIBA World Cup Qualifier at the National Indoor Sports Complex on Sunday. (Photo: FIBA)

Jamaica forward Tyran De Lattibeaudiere (right) is defended by Canada’s Kyle Wiltjer. (Photo: FIBA)

TURNER…if you have hurt [on a scale] from one to 100, we were at 100 and it’s at 100 still (Photo: Joseph Wellington)