MARIBOR (FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament for Men) – Carlos Arroyo made his long-awaited first appearance for Puerto Rico and poured in a game-high 21 points but Slovenia blew out the team from the FIBA Americas 79-68 to win the Alpos Cup.

Arroyo, who only joined up with the national side this week, played almost 33 minutes and was eight of 13 from the floor.

But Manolo Cintron’s team weren’t able to clinch their third straight win after narrow triumphs over New Zealand and Iran.

Slovenia led by as many as 15 points in the first half and went in front by as many as 17 twice, including with less than nine minutes remaining.

Puerto Rico clawed the deficit back to 71-64 with 3:47 remaining but got no closer.

For Slovenia, captain Rasho Nesterovic had 16 points while Domen Lorbek finished with 15 and seven rebounds.

Uros Slokar also rose to the occasion, scoring 10 and grabbing nine boards.

Jose Barea had been Puerto Rico’s most consistent player on offense but he had just three points and four turnovers in 19 minutes.

Daniel Santiago had 16 points and six rebounds for Puerto Rico.

New Zealand lost to Puerto Rico and Slovenia but got the best of Iran on Thursday, beating the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship winners 91-80.

Kirk Penney again led the Tall Blacks with 24 points while Mohammadsamad Nikkhah Bahramia scored the same amount in defeat.

“Both the Puerto Rico and Slovenia games we felt like we put ourselves in positions to win and just took the foot off, let them make runs,” said Penney.

“Tonight we didn’t do that. They made a run at us but we were able to handle it and ended up with a nice 10-point buffer. It just gave us confidence. Everyone played well tonight, the scoring was spread out and a lot of guys contributed.”

Slovenia won all three of their games at the Alpos Cup. They will take on Canada and Korea in Group C of next week’s FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament while Puerto Rico are in Group D with Croatia and Cameroon.

New Zealand are in Group B with Germany and Cape Verde.

The Iranians have already qualified for the Olympics.

FIBA