SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Puerto Rico's basketball team is going to the Athens Olympics thanks to a pair of big men who dominated inside and a young point guard who stifled Steve Nash.

Jose "Piculin" Ortiz had a triple-double of 21 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, Daniel Santiago added 15 points, 11 rebounds and six assists and Carlos Arroyo helped hold a frustrated Nash to just 10 points on 2-for-13 shooting as Puerto Rico defeated Canada 79-66 Sunday night in the third-place game at the Tournament of the Americas.

The United States defeated Argentina 106-73 in the gold medal game later Sunday.

Dominating throughout, Puerto Rico avenged a homecourt loss to Canada four years ago that kept it out of the Sydney Olympics. The players held a spirited celebration at midcourt, jumping up and down while holding the island commonwealth's flag as a sellout crowd roared in appreciation.

Ortiz, the 39-year-old national team stalwart, shot 10-for-18 from the field, blocked seven shots and had three steals.

"I think it's my best game, as important as this was. We could not afford to be two cycles out of the Olympics. It was going to be my last game if we didn't win," Ortiz said.

Santiago shot 7-for-12, Arroyo had five assists and Elias Ayuso added 15 points to send Puerto Rico back to the Olympics for the first time since 1996.

Rowan Barrett had 18 points for Canada, which fell behind in the first quarter with Nash trying to force the offense and never recovered.

Nash's shot selection was terrible in the first half as he went just 1-for-9, with many of the shots missing badly. He also spent time complaining to the referees, who have allowed the teams in this tournament to play an extremely physical brand of basketball.

It may have been Nash's final game for Canada, which he has represented in international competitions for 11 of the past 12 years. Canada will not play next summer and does not have a major international competition until the 2006 World Championships in Saitama, Japan.

"It's too early to say at this point," said Nash, who surprisingly was voted the Most Valuable Player of the tournament. Manu Ginobili of Argentina was the runner-up, and Tim Duncan of the U.S. team was third.

Canada had a pair of 3-pointers at the start of the fourth quarter to pull to 66-53, but Ayuso answered with a 3 from deep in the right corner.

A 3-pointer by Eddie Casiano and back-to-back baskets by Ortiz made it 77-58 with 2:04 left. With one of Puerto Rico's assistants demonstrably urging the crowd on, the celebrating lasted for the rest of the game.

"We almost had a perfect game," Puerto Rico coach Julio Toro said through a translator. "We played very smart and we were able to harness our emotions during the game."