SOUTH BRONX, NY — Puerto Rico won one of their most important games against a European team in FIBA basketball history on Thursday, when they defeated Italy in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2024.  The reason is that prior to Thursday’s win over Italy, Puerto Rico had not won a game versus Italy in 30 years. That’s right up there with some of the worst losing records in sports, probably second to the Red Sox “Curse of the Bambino” which lasted 86 years.

So, it was double mayhem Thursday at the Coliseo Jose Miguel Agrelot in San Juan, Puerto Rico, when Puerto Rico and Italy had an exciting game known in Puerto Rico as “Tira y Dame” (a back-and-forth). It was a very competitive game that had 10 lead changes and seven ties as both teams were looking to move on to the semi-finals and hopefully a ticket to the Paris Olympics.

Puerto Rico had lost 13 consecutive games to Italy, but on Thursday, Puerto Rico would redeem itself with incredible strong support of the loud home crowd of approximately 13,000 Boricuas. The crowd was thrilled to see José Alvarado, the New Orleans Pelicans guard, come off the bench and feed off the home crowd and score 21 of his 29 points in the second half, including 12 in the fourth to help Puerto Rico secure the win 80-69.

🇵🇷 Jose Alvarado drops 29 to keep Puerto Rico perfect in Group Stage and win @TCL_Brand Player of the Game! #FIBAOQT pic.twitter.com/HWu7fgjL9a

— FIBA (@FIBA) July 5, 2024

With the win, Puerto Rico broke a 60-year-old losing streak to Italy and secured a spot in the semi-finals tonight versus Mexico.

The pride of Puerto Rico was in full swing as the crowd and players were exiting to the very patriotic song, Preciosa the version song by Mark Anthony.

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