Mexico City, Sep 10 (IANS): With great strength and defence, Venezuela defeated Panama 75-62 in the second round of FIBA (International Basketball Federation) 2015 Americas Championship here on Wednesday, making way into the semifinals.

John Cox was the Venezuelan leading player with 21 points and six rebounds, followed by Heissler Guillent who scored 13 points, three rebounds and four passes, Xinhua news agency reported.

On the other hand, Panamanian Michael Hicks scored 20 points, followed by Trevor Gaskins with 13 points and seven rebounds.

Panama needed to win so they could qualify to semifinals. They won the first quarter with a score of 22-21, with the leading performance of Hicks, who scored 10 points.

But Venezuela had a tougher game, they pressured and attacked the rival and were more effective.

At half-time, Venezuela was above 40-35. Then, in the third quarter, Venezuela was better than Panama with a very good performance of Cox, who scored seven points to reach 59-52.

Venezuela never showed tired and finally defeated the Central American team.