The Argentine basketball team defeated their Cuban counterparts 80-68 in the match played tonight at the Coliseo de la Ciudad Deportiva stadium in Havana. This game was the first qualifying match for the 2027 Basketball World Cup in Qatar. According to the Argentine News Agency, the national team had to rest two of its key players, point guard Facundo Campazzo and forward Gabriel Deck, who joined the squad after playing in Bulgaria. Additionally, head coach Pablo Prigioni was absent due to a visa issue. With the win, the Argentine team topped Group D of the American qualifiers with two points, one more than Cuba, while Uruguay and Panama, the other two teams in the group, have yet to play their first match. The start of the game was fairly even, but the Argentine team quickly gained the upper hand in both the score and the game. The Argentines had good ball movement that was accentuated by the entry of point guard Facundo Campazzo off the bench, one of the team's leaders and world-renowned for his ability to find passing lanes and assist. The Argentine team, coached on this occasion by Nicolás Casalánguida due to Prigioni's visa absence, tried to apply high pressure from the first quarter, though without too much intensity, and performed well throughout the night on the offensive glass. After a timeout requested by Casalánguida, the national team was able to tighten its defense again, causing its rivals to lose effectiveness and pull away on the scoreboard. Argentina closed the first half with a drive from shooting guard Gonzalo Corbalán, who drove at full speed with six seconds left, dodged point guard Karel Guzmán—even making him fall to the floor—and connected with a floating layup that sealed the score at 41-32 at the end of the second quarter. The third quarter developed similarly to the previous one, with the Cubans imposing themselves in the first minutes, mainly because the Argentine offensive plays were becoming repetitive and less intense, with Campazzo and forward Gabriel Deck affected by the long flight from Bulgaria due to their commitments with the Spanish Real Madrid. This monotony in the Argentine team's attack began to break in the fourth quarter, when the National Team stopped abusing the pick and roll and long plays and started to surprise with some spectacular alley-oops, finished by center Francisco Caffaro and Corbalán, among others. With less than a minute left in the game, a layup from Campazzo and a dunk from Caffaro on the final possession extended Argentina's lead, which secured the 80-68 victory in the first qualifying window for the 2027 World Cup. The standout players for Argentina were Gonzalo Corbalán, with 19 points and 7 rebounds, and Francisco Caffaro, who recorded a double-double: 18 points, 10 rebounds, and two assists, along with a 63% field goal percentage. For the home team, guard Karel Guzmán was the standout, the top scorer of the night, with 22 points and 6 rebounds. The second match between Argentines and Cubans will be played next Monday, December 1st, starting at 19:00, at the Obras Sanitarias stadium in the Federal Capital. The first quarter ended with the visitors ahead 21-13. Cuba had a good start to the second quarter, alternating good defenses with some fouls, and cutting the difference to tie the game in the first minutes.
