Box score

An Olympics berth may not have been on the line, but finishing in third place still meant something to the John Calipari-led Domincan Republic team.

In their final game of the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship for both teams, the Dominicans rolled Puerto Rico 103-89 in the bronze-medal game in Mar del Plata Argentina. The Dominican Republic not only notched its first win over its bitter rival in an Olympics qualifier, the Caribbean country also captured its highest finish in international competition.

“Team DR is Proud,” an official from the Dominican Republic team posted on its official Twitter account. ”We walk out this @fibaamericas tournament with our heads above, earning the Bronze medal speaks highly of our brotherhood.”

Both the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, along with fifth-place finisher Venezuela, will head to a last-chance qualifying tournament next summer in hopes of making the 2012 Olympics. The Dominican Republic has never made the summer games.

Puerto Rico easily handled the Dominicans in their first meeting of the tournament, but Sunday looked like a matchup of two different teams. If the previous night’s disappointment of missing out on an automatic berth to the 2012 Olympics overshadowed the game, one team showed it (Puerto Rico) and the other team didn’t (Dominican Republic).

Racing to a 27-12 first-quarter lead, the Dominicans hit 11-of-15 shots. Francisco Garcia was the early spark in the game, hitting two 3-pointers and scoring eight points before the second quarter began.

Things would only get worse for the Puerto Ricans.

With Garcia, Al Horford and Eulis Baez cruising, the lead grew to as much as 26 points in the second quarter. At halftime, the margin was 53-29. At that point, Garcia and Horford each had 11 points and Baez had nine. The Dominicans hit 21-of-31 first-half shots (67.7 percent), including 5-of-8 3-pointers.

Down by 28 points in the third quarter, Puerto Rico started to chip away. The game got as close as nine points early in the fourth before a Ronald Ramon 3-pointer ignited a game-sealing 12-2 run.  

Six players scored in double figures for Coach Cal, led by Horford’s team-high 23 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. Jack Michael Martinez added 21 points, Garcia contributed 18 and Ramon pitched in with 17.

Horford made a case as the tournament’s top player. The 25-year-old NBA veteran finished the two-week tourney with a 19.0 scoring average and a 9.2 rebounding mark. Martinez may get some professional looks with a double-double average in the tournament (14.5 points and 12.1 rebounds).

The Dominicans aren’t a good shooting team, but they wore out the nets Sunday by hitting 37-of-54 shots, an astounding mark of 68.5 percent. They also hit 11-of-18 3-pointers, led by Garcia’s four treys.

The Dominican Republic posted a 6-4 mark in the tournament, the best record in an Olympics qualifier in the nation’s history.

Coach Cal and his staff will return to the United States on Monday. Calipari will hit the recruiting trail immediately for several in-home visits.