Buffalo Cuban basketball champions for the tenth time. Photo: Calixto N. Llanes/ JIT.
The Buffaloes were crowned champions of the 2022 Superior Basketball League and with this they reached their tenth reign in these competitions, no one has earned as much as them.
Favorites since the tournament began, they swept the final against the Guerreros del Yayabo, defeating them in the Giraldo Córdova Cardín with a score of 88 points to 78 in the third game of the match.
Despite the superiority of those led by Jorge García Quintero, the rival showed character and always tried to win the second quarter and the last, although the third set was once again the great moment for the Buffaloes.
For the runners-up, Mario Troyano was once again the big man scoring no less than 28 points, keeping his team alive with each basket.
Yasser Rodríguez once again became the hallmark of the Avilanian game with 25 cartons and was alive under the glass, despite not being his main standard height, proof of this were the eight rebounds taken.
Yosbany Hernández, with 18 units and six catches under the board, seconded Rodríguez in the push of the winners, who were able to overcome the difficulties caused by the rival to enter the paint with a 41 percent accuracy from long distance.
From the perimeter came 27 points for the Buffalo, product of nine baskets in 22 attempts. To this was added a fierce care of his rim with 41 rebounds of the 50 total taken from the defense and an admirable effectiveness of 75 percent in free kicks, scoring 15 of the 20 charges executed.
The ten-time winners showed, as in the entire fight, a palpable superiority over the rest of the teams and a formidable wardrobe by putting second and third quartets on the court capable of withstanding any advantage and even increasing it. All of Ciego de Ávila celebrates the triumph of the best Cuban basketball team.
Among the ladies, Santiago de Cuba got one step closer to the League after beating the team from Guantanamo 65 cartons for 62 in his Alejandro Urgellés barracks.
After the Mambisas took a narrow lead in the first two quarters, the Guantanamo team rebelled and turned the score around with an impressive third quarter win 20-11.
The home team pressed the accelerator and led by Sulany Tanis with 20 points and Bexy Claro from Holguin, with a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds, managed to come back and recover the advantage, this time definitively.
The winners also deserved recognition for the performance of Naomi Vargas, owner of nine points and 11 rebounds, just one goal scored from the difficult double-double.
The Guantanamo women could not do more, despite the double figures scored by Bárbara Martínez (14) and Betsy Guilarte (13), the defensive work under the boards was not ideal, taking only 22 rebounds, 15 of them defensive.
With the victory, the women from Santiago advanced two games to one against their rivals in the women’s final of the LSB, another victory would make them champions. Meanwhile, those from Guantánamo will need to win the two remaining games in a foreign court, nothing less than the best in the regular stage.
(Taken from JIT)
