Uruguay ousts Paraguay

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MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina -- Leandro Garcia scored 19 points and Uruguay beat Paraguay 79-66 on Saturday to wrap up a spot in the second round of the Olympic basketball qualifying tournament for the Americas.

Paraguay joined Cuba as the first two teams to be eliminated from the competition.

Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Canada, Puerto Rico and Panama also will advance to another stage of round-robin games starting Monday.

In other games Saturday, Brazil beat Cuba 93-83, Venezuela topped Canada 103-98 in overtime, and Argentina downed Panama 90-71.

On Monday, it's: Dominican Republic-Panama, Venezuela-Puerto Rico, Argentina-Canada, and Brazil-Uruguay.

The two finalists earn places in the 2012 Olympics in London. The United States isn't competing because it qualified automatically for London by winning the 2010 world championship.

Garcia was 5 of 9 from 3-point range, and Uruguay was 11 of 19 overall.

"It was a very dangerous game," Garcia said. "We started a bit ordinary, but after the second period we improved and were able to finish off the game."

Enrique Martinez led Paraguay with 18 points.

Venezuela needed overtime to beat Canada after the teams were locked at 84-84 after regulation time.

Venezuela coach Eric Musselman said he was confident his team would eventually outscore the Canadians the longer the match progressed.

"I told them all, 'If this game finishes at 60 points, we lose, if it's around 90, it'll be close and, if it's over that figure, we win,'" Musselman said.

Greivis Vasquez scored 29 points for Venezuela.

"What disappointed us is that we had a good game plan and we didn't follow it, but despite that we had the chance to win," Canada coach Leo Rautins said.

Meanwhile, Vitor Benite scored 19 points as Brazil inflicted a fourth straight loss on Cuba, which had already been eliminated before the match began.

Cuba's Yoan Luis Haiti had 27 points.

Argentina finished the first round as the only team to win all its four games after beating Panama.

Houston Rockets player Luis Scola was the standout for the host nation with 19 points and 14 rebounds. He was 5 of 6 from 3-point range

Fellow NBA player Andres Nocioni of the Philadelphia 76ers added 18 points.

"The first half cost us, but in the second we started to circulate the ball more and play more as a team," Nocioni said.

Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press

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