Spills and thrills of Day Three at the Americas Cup 2017

The third day of competition at the 2017 Americas Cup in Cali, Colombia saw Brazil women take the first game of the day defeating Argentina, 62-21. Argentina kept themselves in the game in the first quarter, however it was the second quarter when Brazil increased the intensity restricting Argentina to just a single basket giving them a 17 point advantage at half-time. The second half continued in the same way, and as Argentina struggled to find the net, shooting at just 21% percent from the field, Brazil coasted to a 62-21 win. Argentina’s captain Silvia Linari, led by example for her team hitting 14 of their 21 points, this was matched by Brazil’s top scorer Vileide Almeida with 14 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.

Argentina’s male counterparts had a better showing in the next game of the day with a commanding performance over Costa Rica, 86-18, to get their second win of the tournament. Setting their stance out from the beginning, Argentina stormed out to a 26-4 lead. It was a similar story for the other three quarters with scores of 19-3, 26-3, 15-8. Argentina’s Berdun, who did not play in their first game, scored 24 points and again it was Costa Rica’s Pedro Rojas who led their attack with 11 points. The USA men’s team maintained their perfect record and went 3-0, by beating Uruguay, 78-24.

The USA’s defence was stingy once again, holding Uruguay to single-digit scoring quarters (20-5; 20-8; 16-5; 22-6). Leading the way for USA was Brian Bell, who scored 25 points, whilst Uruguay were led by 13 points from Jorge La Paz and Daniel Martinez with 7 points.

In the second women’s game of the day at the Evangelista Mora Coliseum, Canada also remained undefeated with a 69-48 win against the USA. The game started with the teams going basket for basket in the opening minutes, but the Canadians fought to a 10 point lead to close out the first quarter. Canada doubled their score in the second quarter, going into half-time with a 44-24 advantage. The trend continued in the second half as the USA were unable to work their way past the strong Canadian defence to erase the deficit. Arinn Young had a game best for Canada, with 22 points and 13 rebounds, for another double double. Desi Miller led the USA with 20 points.

A tense home game between hosts Colombia men and Brazil men was the penultimate game of the day. Brazil edged the first quarter 19-13, and after a high scoring second quarter, 21-21, Brazil were able to maintain their first quarter advantage to take a six point lead into half-time. Despite Colombia’s best efforts to stay in touch with the Brazilian team, the combination of Marcos Silva and Leandro Di Miranda proved too much and helped Brazil to win the second half by 10 (33-23) and secure a 73-57 win over Colombia. Marcos Silva hit 22 points for Brazil, Johan Vargas with 18 points for Colombia.

The Canadian men cruised to a 91-41 win against Venezuela in the last match of the day. Canada opened the game on a 14-2 run thanks to a strong offensive showing from Patrick Anderson. In the second quarter, the Canadian defence kept Venezuela from reaching the paint and widened their lead to 45-22 by half-time. The Canadians never faltered en route to victory putting on a clinical display to gain their third successive win. Anderson led Canada’s scoring with 33 points, shooting 92 per cent from inside the three point line. Venezuela’s Manuel Aragort led the Venezuela scoring with 15 points, making it a double double with 10 rebounds.

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Image Courtesy of Inspire Colombia.

*Please not there live stream of the event will be available between the 26th August – 30th August