Final point for the first section of the regular phase of the Argentine League. After the games this Monday, December 22, the competition made up of 34 teams in search of promotion will begin its typical break for the holidays. It will consist of 15 days without matches until Wednesday, January 7, when activity will resume with four matches. Moment of rest, balances and adjustments for what is to come.
It has been a grueling first stretch in the opening two months of the season. More than a third of the competition that began on October 30 has already been played. Until now, 103 games have been played in the Northern Conference and 108 in the Southern Conference, a total of 211 of the 544 games scheduled for the regular phase. This flow of meetings allows the groups within each conference to be more clearly delineated. Who will fight at the top, who will fight to enter the playoffs and who are in the fight to remain.
This season, the top four in each zone will go directly to the round of 16, while the 5th to 12th place within each conference will compete for reclassification. Therefore, the race for each position promises to be exciting.
In the North, the current runner-up San Isidro de San Francisco took the lead with a record of 8-3, but two teams are following closely behind. Santa Paula, one of the newcomers from the Federal League, is second with a balance of 9-4 and the most victories in the area. At 8-4 is Salta Basket, which strengthened itself to fight at the top and is meeting its expectations. Barrio Parque took advantage of a successful last few weeks to place fourth with 7-5. Another that rose at the end is Independiente BBC, after a difficult start, raised its head with the arrival of Andrés Lugli and won six of its last seven.
In the South the leader is the team of the moment, Provincial de Rosario. Esteban Gatti’s Rojo has a balance of 11-2 and has eight wins in a row. The first section of Quilmes has also been phenomenal. They were the last team to lose and are now trailing with a record of 11-3. Gimnasia La Plata follows closely with 9-3 and seven wins in its last eight games. The fourth is La Unión with a record of 8-3, undefeated at home and having debuted on the road in its last presentation.
The positions in the back are also on fire. The novelty for this season is that the two relegations contemplated by the tournament will not be defined by playoffs for permanence, but rather the teams that finish in 17th place in each conference will lose their category. In the North, Colón is last with a record of 3-9 followed by three debutant teams with four victories: Hindú Club, Huracán Las Heras and Fusión Riojana. At the bottom of the South is Deportivo Norte with 2-11, above Rocamora with 3-10 and then Ciclista with 4-10.
San Isidro is the highest scoring team in the entire competition with an average of 88.9, followed by Sportivo Suardi and Independiente BBC, all from the North. Centenario de Venado Tuerto leads the tournament in three-point percentage with 39% success. Lanús and Pico FC are the tournament leaders in rebounds, while Centenario and Unión de Mar del Plata do the same in the assists section. The averages at a collective level, in this LINK.
On an individual level there are also things to highlight. Hans Feder Ponce is the scorer with 22 points on average for Colón de Santa Fe. He is followed by Juan Abeiro from Fusión Riojana and Crisitan Amicucci from Independiente BBC. Amicucci himself leads the contest in rating followed by four other inmates, Elias Cave from Estudiantes, Juan Abeiro from Fusión Riojana, Franco Pennacchiotti from Villa Mitre and Elián Centeno from Villa San Martín.
The rebounding table is headed by Iván Catani, from Deportivo Norte, although with only one game played. Point guard Gastón Bertona of Barrio Parque leads La Liga Argentina in assists with 5.3 per game, accompanied by Andrés Lugli of Independiente BBC, Jerónimo Díaz Müller of the surprising Santa Paula and Raúl Pelorosso of GELP. All individual statistics can be consulted at this LINK.
There are a few weeks of respite in terms of the number of games, which the teams will take advantage of to rest, decompress and make adjustments to the squads. The activity resumes on January 7, as always, on the Básquet Pass screen.
