Atenas started the definition for promotion against Racing de Chivilcoy putting all their effort, as they beat them 80-72 with a great collective performance from the team and thus took a 1-0 lead in the final series.
The Carlos Cerutti sports center was once again full of fans, who cheered from start to finish and were excited about the return to the National League. The little song “Let’s go back” sounded with fury and roar on all four sides.
The Cerutti stands packed. Photo: Germán Ruiz/Atenas.
The truth is that Atenas managed to contain Racing’s two main weapons: the triple (28%) with great mobility of the perimeter and the attack in the painted zone with the inclusion of foreigner Christopher Ware in the rotation. The result reflects this, since the rival could only score 72 points, when they came into this series averaging 86.9 points in the playoffs.
On the other side, “El Griego” had one of his best performances from the outside shot with 13 three-pointers converted in 30 attempts (43%) and taking the opportunity to run the court on the counterattack. Unlike the series with Suardi, which was slower, tonight Atenas felt comfortable in the stick-by-stick that Racing proposed.
/Home Embedded Code/
/End Embedded Code/
The delivery of the captain and Zurschmitten’s baton to win
Lucas Arn was once again the offensive engine of the “Green”. With 29 points, 5 rebounds and 1 assist, he managed to win the individual duel against Stucky and Conte, who had a lot of difficulty marking him in the post and tried to force him out of the key.
However, Arn surprised (or not so much) with his great efficiency from the outside shot, scoring 6 triples that forced the insiders to have to leave the paint. That situation was read perfectly by Nicolás Zurschmitten who pulled the strings of his team.
/Home Embedded Code/
/End Embedded Code/
He did it at the right time to break the rival resistance: the beginning of the third quarter. There, the point guard took possession of the ball and hurt with the central pick, he always managed to break that first line, penetrate and offload to a teammate or shoot. In other words, he was in charge of making Racing’s defensive approach collapse.
Such performance was evident on his scoresheet, as he was on the verge of finishing with a triple double: 8 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. He also had 2 steals, but also committed 5 turnovers (3 of them in the first half).
Rubén Magnano with President David Urreta and “Pichi” Campana. Photo: Germán Ruiz.
The X factor of this first match
Without a doubt, the surprise of the night was in Christopher Ware’s performance. The foreign pivot was fundamental on both sides of the field. He entered the game replacing Juan Cruz Oberto when his team was losing by 7 points, in the middle of the second quarter.
The American was brave in the paint and managed to physically contain the Racing team, who missed several shots near the rim and allowed Atenas to reverse the result at the end of the first half.
Chris Ware in action. (Photo: Germán Ruiz/Atenas).
In that sense, Ware scored 2 key triples and converted 2 doubles to finish with 10 points in less than ten minutes. They were key to building an advantage that “El Griego” never gave up again.
The coach of Athens, Gustavo Peirone and a night to remember
The “Griego” coach spoke with Cadena 3 after the victory and was happy with the team’s performance, as well as the great support of the people.
“We took a step forward in defense in the last games. If we play a game with 70 points, we have a good chance of winning and if we play a game with 100 points as the first quarter looked like, we will surely lose,” he reflected.
Peirone also highlighted the role of all his coaches, including Matías Stanic and Lucas Reyes. “Matías’s thing is no longer strange, he already knows that he has to go in and defend the best of the others and we don’t have to tell him anything,” said the coach and added: “Today Ware did very well, he scored two triples that gave us “They opened the game a little and we need everyone at this moment and whoever comes in has to do their job in the best way possible.”
Finally, he referred to the support of the fans: “The people are tremendous because two hours before the game started they were already on the field and the soccer team was playing, Instituto was playing on another field. Cerruti exploded again, He accompanied us, encouraged us and the truth is that he gives us tremendous satisfaction.”
“We feel that people identified with the team, if they were not identified with the team today it would not be so easy for them to come and without a doubt it does us good,” he concluded.
The dates of the finals
Game 2: Tuesday 11/07 | 9 pm in Córdoba
Game 3: Saturday 07/15 | 9 pm in Chivilcoy
Game 4: Monday 07/17 | 9 pm in Chivilcoy*
Game 5: Thursday 07/20 | 9 pm in Córdoba*
If necessary
Report by Ignacio García Iturriza.
