The Argentine basketball team continued with an ideal pace in the AmeriCup in Brazil and got into the semifinals, defeating Venezuela 76-53, 76-53, in the city of Recife.
At the Geraldao Arena in the capital of the State of Pernambuco, the group led by Pablo Prigioni from Cordoba achieved the fourth consecutive victory in the continental competition.
The national quintet clearly dominated the development and prevailed with the following progression: 21-18, 44-22, 62-32 and 76-53. The semifinal rival this Saturday will be the United States, which harrowingly beat Puerto Rico 85-84, in another of the competition’s quarterfinal matches.
Facundo Campazzo (Denver Nuggets) and Juan Pablo Vaulet (Manresa) from Cordoba, plus Gabriel Deck (Real Madrid) from Santiago were the main goalscoring routes for the Argentine team, with 12 goals each.
The scorer of the day was the Venezuelan forward José Materán (former Bahía Basket), who finished his work with a balance of 15 points and 3 rebounds. The overwhelming dominance exerted by the winning team allowed DT Prigioni to rotate, generate rest for his usual starters, and use alternative elements throughout the second half.
Venezuela, led by Argentine coach Fernando Duró, arrived at this continental championship with notorious absences such as Michael Carreras, Gregory Vargas, Heissler Guillent or Néstor Colmenares, to name a few, since none of them obtained the relevant authorization from the Super League. local basketball (SBV).
The Argentine team took control from the beginning, with an active Campazzo (4 assists in the first quarter), plus a determined Deck every time he went to the rival basket (6 points in the initial 10 minutes).
At the beginning of the second half, an initial attack by the Venezuelan team reduced the numbers, but that moment ended soon, with two successive three-pointers by Campazzo.
From then on, the two banks rotated players and preferred to shoot those who have fewer minutes. The losing team improved production in the final stretch and cut figures in a game, in which it almost never competed. Another of the teams that qualified for the semifinals is Canada, which defeated Mexico 82-77.