In the tournament itself, Argentina faced a tough group with Italy, the United States and Mexico. The team lost by a large margin their two initial games: 73–91 against Italy (that, contrary to Argentina, had a full team of professional players) and 51–81 against the United States (that had a team of university players, among them Willis Reed and Don Kojis). In the game against Mexico (that had Manuel Raga and Carlos Quintanar in their team), the 35 points scored by Alberto Desimone were not enough to avoid an 82–84 defeat. Desimone's feat of 35 points in one game were an Argentine record in the competition until Luis Scola scored 37 against Brazil in the 2010 World Championship. The team was eliminated in the preliminary round, but finished first in the "consolation round", played by the 6 teams eliminated in the first group stage.