Nicolás Avellaneda from Santiago del Estero beat his pair from Tucumán by the minimum, 81-80, in the capital of Tucumán for the first game of the reclassification to the playoffs.
At the beginning, the people from Santiago took possession of the first minutes, with triples by Juan López and Guido Garnica. After Allende’s technical talk directed by him, the Tucuman rim opened with doubles by Marcos Contreras, Lucas Ocaranza and Cesar Lorú’s dunk. The game was locked towards the end of the period. The light blue team kept the advantage due to the lost balls of the green, to close the first quarter 17-21.
The Santiago team dominated at the start of the second quarter, with the offensives of López and Carabajal, who set in motion the collective game of the visit. However, in the middle of the set, Velázquez took out his weapons and managed the game as a scorer of three triples and doubles, also assisting his teammates, so that the local team went to the front. This was not enough and with Garnica’s points they went into the break 40 to 39 in favor of Santiago.
In the third period, Daniel Allende’s team woke up attacking with triples by Pérez and points under the rim by Cesar Lorú. On the side of José Small, he ignited his audience with the shots of three by López and baskets by Mauro Morales who moved away from the scoreboard, closing 65-56.
In the last ten minutes the tension was noticeable, no one wanted to lose. Tucumán’s offenses surpassed Santiago’s defenses, he contributed to the board with his goalkeepers Velazquez and Lorú. However, Avellaneda de Santiago with his scorer Juan López added from several points on the perimeter. In the absence of thousandths of a second, with a difference of three points, they charged a foul of 3 for the Tucumans, the person in charge of taking the game to extra time was Velázquez but he scored 2 free throws and everything ended in 81 to 80 in favor of Santiago.
Next Monday they will cross paths again, at the Israel Parnás stadium in Santiago at 10 pm, with the tucumans obliged to win to force a third game.
Partials: 17-21 / 22-19 / 17-25 / 24-16.
Source: Press Nicolás Avellaneda of Tucumán.
