Despite big effort from Edwin Suarez, Dominican Republic loses again (updated)

Edwin Suarez had a monster game Wednesday, helping the Dominican Republic rally from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit before falling to Ecuador 73-71 in the FIBA U18 Americas Championship tournament in Tijuana, Mexico.

Suarez, a recent Muhlenberg graduate, grabbed a game-high 18 rebounds and scored 14 points, second-most on his team, but couldn’t prevent the Dominican team from falling to 0-3 in the tournament.

The Dominicans pulled within 72-71 with 10 seconds left when Junior Galicia hit a 3-pointer. Ecuador’s Janer Arcila hit the first of two free throws with nine seconds left. Vrayton Suero got off a 3-point attempt with four seconds left for the Dominicans but was off the mark.

The team is off Thursday before the single-elimination quarterfinals begin Friday. The Dominican Republic will finish fourth in Group B, behind the United States, Puerto Rico and Ecuador; it will open the quarterfinals against the Group A champ, Brazil, Friday at 2:30 EST.

The 6-6 Suarez, a two-time All-Berks pick, played a team-high 30 1/2 minutes. He made 7-of-11 shots from the field, had a team-high three assists and a team-high four steals. He had a plus-34 efficiency rating, the only Dominican player with a positive double-digit mark.

Nasir Muhammad scored a team-high 19 points for the Dominican. Joseph Caicedo had a game-high 27 points for Ecuador (1-2).

After three games Suarez is averaging a team-high 15.7 efficiency rating and leads the team in scoring (10.7) and rebounds (9.7). He is averaging 25.8 minutes, second on the team, and shooting 46.9 percent from the field.