NEW ORLEANS — For the first time since 2004, Puerto Rico is headed to the Olympics.
In San Juan, the hosts got 23 points from Jose Alvarado and 18 points from Tremont Waters and topped Lithuania 79-68 to claim the 12th and final spot in the field for the Paris Games.
Alvarado is the only Pelicans player participating in this year's Olympics.
Puerto Rico will be slotted into group play in France with Serbia, South Sudan and the U.S.
On Sunday, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Greece, and Spain grabbed the last spots after prevailing in winner-take-all qualifiers that started last week.
The four-time defending gold medalist U.S., France, Germany, Japan, Serbia, South Sudan, Canada, and Australia had already qualified for the Paris field. France qualified as the host nation; the other seven teams on that list qualified based on their finishes at the World Cup last summer.
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