After a truncated week of practices in Carlsbad at Davis Hall Gym on the campus of Army and Navy Academy, Team USA split a pair of games at Frontwave Arena in the current qualifying window for the 2027 FIBA Basketball World Cup, falling Thursday night to the Dominican Republic before rebounding Sunday against Mexico.
The February stop in Oceanside was part of Window 2 of the Americas qualifiers, one of six international breaks spread across a 15-month cycle that determines the region’s seven World Cup berths. Under the home-and-away format introduced by FIBA in 2019, national teams gather during designated windows in November, February, and June/July to play two games apiece.
Results carry over through two group phases, with the top teams advancing toward the World Cup field.
Since this system was implemented, the United States has compiled a 22-6 record.
The current iteration of Team USA featured Elfrid Payton, Dakota Mathias, Taevion Kinsey, Jaden Shackelford, Jeremiah Tilmon, David Roddy, Tevian Jones, Brandon Knight, Terry Taylor, James Wiseman, Jeremiah Robinson, and Malcolm Hill, a mix of NBA veterans and G League standouts.
In Thursday’s opener against the Dominican Republic, Brandon Knight led the Americans with 20 points, while Elfrid Payton added nine points and six assists. David Roddy, making his USA Basketball debut, contributed eight points and showed the versatility coaches praised during the week’s practices. The Americans trailed by as many as 19 points and never led, falling 87-79.
About 1,000 fans attended, heavily favoring the Dominicans, who notched their first victory over a U.S. men’s team in a qualifying window since 1989 — three years before the Dream Team era.
“I was telling our guys that nobody believed in us,” Dominican center and national team veteran Ángel Delgado said. “Everybody doubted that we could win this game because the group that came here is a lot of young guys and a lot of guys that just play in the Dominican Republic. I told them at halftime, ‘We can do this.’”
Dominican guard Jassel Pérez, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard playing professionally in Spain, led the upset with 20 points.
“We’re missing a lot of guys,” Delgado said. “Guys important to our team and we did it without them. I know they’re very happy right now. They couldn’t come, they couldn’t be here and we just did it for our country and for our families.”
After the final buzzer, the Dominican players celebrated at halfcourt, dancing and chanting “grupito, grupito,” Spanish for “little group.” Although far from the Dream Team, the US national team’s victory highlighted how the global gap in basketball talent has narrowed.
“[Dominican Republic] played extremely hard, but I think a lot of that was due to self-infliction from just being a little tight starting the game,” Knight said. “Toward the end of the game, we kind of started playing free and playing our game,” head coach Stephen Silas added. “It is disappointing because we did have a good camp, to come out here and lose this game is disappointing.”
Sunday’s game against Mexico told a different story. Team USA jumped to a 40-14 lead, forcing turnovers that led to easy points. David Roddy poured in 20 points, Jeremiah Robinson added 17, and seven players finished with double-digits in a 123-88 rout. Brandon Knight and Malcolm Hill each scored 18, while Terry Taylor recorded a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. The team combined for 36 assists.
“Coming into the Mexico game, we’ll obviously have more focus and better understanding about what it’s going to take,” Silas said.
Team USA has won two of the last four FIBA World Cups, in 2010 and 2014. The team will travel to Santo Domingo and Mexico City for Window 3 in July, carrying points forward in Group A as they continue the Americas qualifying cycle. The 2027 FIBA Men’s World Cup is set for Doha, Qatar.
