No miracle upset for Ruben Rodriguez, Puerto Rico against USA (updated)

For a few moments Wednesday evening Ruben Rodriguez was living the dream.

The Reading High guard scored on a breakaway layup midway through the first quarter to give Puerto Rico a one-point lead over the United States in the FIBA U18 Americas Championship tournament in Tijuana, Mexico.

A couple minutes later the Berks Player of the Year knocked down a 3-pointer, tying the game.

One American player wasn’t nearly enough to stop five. The U.S. was just too long and too fast and, as expected, rolled past Puerto Rico 100-55 in the final game of Group B play.

The U.S.A finished 3-0 in round-robin play and will be the Group B No. 1 seed when the quarterfinals begin Friday, following a day off for all teams. Puerto Rico will be No. 2. Ecuador will be No. 3 and Dominican Republic No. 4.

Puerto will play Canada Friday at 5:00 EST.

Rodriguez finished with five points, all in the first half, on 2-of-7 shooting. He had two steals, one assist and one rebound.

Edir Ortiz led Puerto Rico with 17 points and nine rebounds, and with a plus-22 efficiency rating.

Cam Whitmore, a 6-7 forward from Archbishop Spalding High School in Severn, Md., led Team USA with 24 points in 20 minutes, on 11-of-13 shooting.

The Villanova recruit also had seven rebounds.

Eric Dailey Jr., a rising senior at IMG Academy in Florida, scored 16 points for the U.S. He has offers from Alabama, Michigan, Florida, Florida State and Georgia, among others.

Kel’el Ware, a 7-foot center from North Little Rock, Ark., scored 15 points. He is committed to play at Oregon.

Puerto Rico took it’s only lead at 11-10 on Rodriguez’s basket with 5:28 left in the first quarter.

Rodriguez tied the game at 14-14 with 3:58 left in the first quarter. Team USA ended the period on an 8-1 run for 22-15 lead, and was up 50-29 at the half.

Puerto Rico shot just 29 percent in the first half and 30 percent for the game.

After three games, Rodriguez is second on the team in efficiency rating, at 17.0; Alejandro Aviles is first at 18.5. Rodriguez leads the team with six steals, is second in rebounding, averaging 9.0 per game, and third in assists, at 2.5 per game. He is averaging 19.4 minutes, sixth-most on the team.

Rodriguez, a rising senior, has offers from Drexel, Jacksonville University and Saint Peter’s.