By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Yamil Rondon said he went to bed with a gold medal around his neck Sunday night.
That’s what the Cooper High School junior received for being a member of the Puerto Rico under-17 boys national basketball team that won the Centrobasket Championship, a five-day international tournament held in Belize.
In the title game on Sunday night, Rondon had 12 points and three assists for the Puerto Rico team that defeated Dominican Republic, 106-57, to win the tournament. The field also included teams from Belize, Panama, Jamaica, Mexico, El Salvador and Costa Rica.
Puerto Rico won three games in pool play and two games in the championship bracket by double-digit margins, including the 49-point runaway in the title game.
“We really felt like a team that was well connected,” Rondon said. “We moved the ball really well and were able to score.”
Rondon was eligible for the team because both of his parents were born in Puerto Rico. He spent most of the summer on the island going through tryouts and training for the tournament.
“I was a little surprised,” he said of his team’s winning margins. “We didn’t know what to expect going into the tournament, but we knew we had a pretty good team.”
The 5-foot-11 point guard played in all five of his team’s tournament games. He averaged 6.8 points, 2.8 assists and 1.8 rebounds. In the championship game, he was 4 of 5 from the field with two 3-point goals and made both of his free throw attempts.
“I usually came in at the end of he first half and then played most of the second half,” he said of his playing time that averaged 17.2 minutes per game during the tournament.
Rondon was unable to play on the AAU summer basketball circuit, but being on a championship team in an international tournament should look good on his resume for college recruiters.
He also had a good sophomore season at Cooper. The Jaguars made it to the championship game of the 9th Region tournament last March with Rondon as the team’s floor leader. He finished the season with a team-high 13.5 scoring average and shot 45.9 percent from the field.