Aug. 27, 2007

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - University of Maryland sophomore guard Greivis Vasquez (Caracas, Venezuela/Montrose Christian) turned in his best game of the 2007 FIBA Americas Championships on Sunday (August 26), as Venezuela knocked off the Virgin Islands, 100-90.

Vasquez played a team-high 38 minutes and narrowly missed a triple-double as the finished with 18 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. He added two steals in the victory over the Virgin Islands. Venezuela finished the preliminary round 1-3 after dropping its first three games of the tournament.

The win over the Virgin Islands sends the Venezuelan national team to the quarterfinal round where they will face Argentina Monday (August 27) at 6:00 p.m. EST. After taking on Argentina, the Venezuelans will face Uruguay Tuesday (August 28). They will close the quarterfinal round with games against Puerto Rico (August 29) and Mexico (August 30).

Team USA downed Venezuela, 112-69 in the opening game of the championships. Vasquez tallied a team-high 12 points to go along with five rebounds, two assists and two steals in the loss. He scored nine points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out six assists in Venezuela's 80-73 loss to Canada in the second game of the preliminary round. The Venezuelans suffered a 101-75 defeat to Brazil in their third game. Vasquez finished with 13 points, one rebound, one assist and four steals against the Brazilians.

The starter at guard for Venezuela in all four preliminary round games, Vasquez averaged 13.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals. He averaged 30 minutes per contest.

Vasquez earned ACC All-Freshman honorable mention in 2006-07. He finished the year with 149 assists, the third-highest assist total among freshmen in the history of the school. Vasquez ranked sixth in the ACC in assists (4.62) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.71). He averaged 9.8 points and 3.3 rebounds per game last season. Vasquez narrowly missed the first triple-double at Maryland in 20 years as he posted 13 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds at Duke on February 28.