Needing four wins to return to the Olympic Games for a seventh straight time, Spain opened the qualifying tournament with a dominating victory in front of its home crowd in València.
Santi Aldama produced a team-high 17 points and nine rebounds, Usman Garuba had 15 points and eight rebounds and Jaime Pradilla added 14 points to lead Spain to the 104-59 victory over Lebanon in the group phase of the tournament.
Spain trailed for only 33 seconds in the victory and shot 49.3% from the field. The team also received strong contributions from Rudy Fernández (nine points), Willy Hernangómez (eight points) and Juan Núñez (two points, five assists and four rebounds).
After defeating Lebanon, Spain can advance to the semifinals of the tournament by defeating Angola on Wednesday. The team would face one of the top two teams from Group B, which features the Bahamas (1-0), Finland (0-1) and Poland.
The winner of the qualifying tournament will claim one of the four remaining spots in the 2024 Olympic Games. That country will be placed in Group A to start the Olympics, along with Australia, Canada and another team from a qualifying tournament.
Spain has qualified for the Olympics 13 times, including the past six tournaments. The team last took home a medal in 2016 after finishing with the bronze.
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