Comodoro Rivadavia’s Gimnasia y Esgrima, a good performer this season, was defeated by the last champion of the National Basketball League, Instituto de Córdoba, 84-80 at the Socios Fundadores Gymnasium in the oil city.
During the first quarter the match remained even, with the Chubutense cast being the dominator at the beginning, but in turn declining in the final minutes where “La Gloria” managed to impose its game and with a partial of (12-0) finished the first ten minutes up (18-23).
As it happened at the beginning of the match, the “Green” entered the field better than his rival and quickly equalized the score. In this set, the connection between captain Sebastián Orresta and Yoanki Mencia was important, who little by little began to demonstrate a performance similar to that of the first two games.
For the visit, the presence of Tayavek Gallizzi in the painted zone was vital, being the scoring reference of “La Gloria” who every time he proposed to do so managed to break the local defense to add or create spaces for his teammates to score and thus way to shorten the gap that separated both (45-41). In the second half, the locals were forceful from the beginning and after a great performance by foreigner Gerard De Vaughn managed to mark a difference between the two of 15 points (56-41).
At the moment in which it seemed that Gymnastics was going to take the reins of the match, the Cordoba team reacted with three pointers from the hands of the young Federico Elías, who became one of the stars of the night (62-59). During the final minutes, La Gloria continued with the same line of play and thus managed to get ahead on the scoreboard against a bewildered and erratic Gimnasia.
The match was defined by small details that occurred at the close, where efficiency in the free throw line was essential to seal the victory of Instituto de Córdoba in Comodoro Rivadavia.
