Jamaica’s quest to compete at the FIBA World Cup next year took another blow, after they suffered a 97-81 loss against Canada in the FIBA Basketball World Cup Americas qualifier at the National Indoor Sports Centre on Sunday night. 

The world number 5 ranked Canadians jumped into a 27-19 lead at the end of the first quarter, before pulling away even further to end the half at 49- 36 over the Jamaicans. 

The lead extended to 78-58 at the end of the third quarter with some excellent outside shooting by the visitors. 

Jamaica had their best performance in the fourth quarter as they outscored Canada 23-19, but it was not enough as the visitors went on to wrap up a dominant performance on the night. 

Tyran de Lattibeaudiere who had an outstanding night on both ends of the floor was the top scorer for jamaica with a game-high 23 points and 10 rebounds, while Andrew Thelwell, netted 12, and Chase Adugie finished with 11 points. 

Marcus Carr led Canada with 17 points.

Meanwhile, Canada who have already qualified for the final round, remains undefeated in the group B’ race with 8 points, while Jamaica who sits second on 6 points is left to fight for a spot in their final games on the road in the next window.

With the loss the Jamrockerz missed an immediate opportunity to secure their spot in the final round, following an earlier 99-96 defeat to the Bahamas four days ago. 

Jamaica’s final two games in the group B’ Americas qualifiers will be contested in the next window on July 3 and 6.

In the other game of the group, Puerto Rico picked up their first win of the qualifiers as they defeated Bahamas 71-66.