The Dominican Republic overcame a 13-point halftime deficit to defeat Macedonia 86-76 and advance to the semifinals of the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament. The Dominican Republic out scored MKD 58-35 in the second half including 32-20 in the fourth quarter.
Francisco Garcia bounced back from a subpar outing against Russia to lead the way with 28 points. Al Horford had a bad shooting day going 5 for 17 but finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds. Jack Michael Martinez added 14 points and 13 boards while Ronald Ramon pitched in 13 points.
MKD's Bo McCalebb did everything he could to keep his team in contention for an Olympic birth finishing with 35 points on 14 of 26 shooting. Vlado Ilievski added 16 points and Predrag Samardziski finished with 11.
With the win the Dominican Republic advances to the semifinals on Saturday. The top three finishers in the tournament will earn spots in the London Olympics.
*Update via Scott Schroeder of SBNation.com
The Dominican Republic team will now play the winner of Friday night's late game (featuring Puerto Rico and Lithuania) on Saturday afternoon for one of two automatic Olympic berths -- no championship game will be held. The semifinal winners will both receive an automatic bid to London 2012 while the two losers of Saturday afternoon's semifinals will play a third-place game on Sunday for the third and final bid to this year's Olympics.
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