Atenas lost to Racing and promotion to the National League is something to be desired :: Olé

Athens was one victory away from achieving the long-awaited and complicated promotion to the National Basketball Leagueand Chivilcoy Racing, to two. Well, after Game 4 of the final of the Argentine League After the match point in Athens, the two were in the same conditions, because the Buenos Aires team won on their court 84-70 to force the fifth game.

The last match of this second division in which 33 teams started with the dream of catching the only ticket to access the highest category It will be played on Friday, in Córdoba, all or nothing. At the Cerutti Sports Center, whoever wins will be the champion and the 20th club for the 2024/25 National League, replacing the relegated one Mercedes Communications, Corrientes.

Both teams started out uncertain, but at 4′ they revealed that the search for the triple was going to be their first route. Santiago Assum on the local side and Carlos Buemo for the visitor, they made the nets move. However, Racing found ways clearer goals for his 60% effectiveness in shots from the fieldagainst 40% of the Cordobans, who danced to the rhythm of the albiceleste, who won the opening quarter 24-18.

By the second the figure of the Greek was no longer there, Lucas Arn, who with just 3 points and 8′ went to the locker room to be treated for a calf contracture. Racing with more energy and awake, he took off with the aim of Luciano Ortiz (13) and Assum (12). Athens, on the other hand, was doing badly on both sides, because not only did it not score, but it Nicholas Zurschmitten They stole a ball from his hand to then score a triple, and then, out of excitement, the point guard wanted to redeem himself with a solo play and didn’t score it. In Racing’s next attack, Chris Ware and Lucas Reyes got upset on a simple defensive rebound and, fisherman, Norberto Stucky He took advantage of the gift (3-7 in losses; 5-1 in recoveries) and increased to 38-28. With that same gap they went to the long break, 46-36.

In the third, Racing got the maximum of the entire series, 14 points (56-42) with 4′ left, a distance that they were then able to stretch. Not only did the local team manage the game – with the best defense of the four games, perhaps – but Atenas became involved in protests and technicians on the bench. The last of the partial seemed from Athens, a bomb from Zurschmitten to bring it closer to 11, but Assum returned it in the same way to return to 14: 67-53.

The last quarter was similar, with Atenas that did not get out of its labyrinth and they continued to be charged by technicians and with Racing, led by Alejo Barrales, which even went 19 up (79-60) with a triple by Juan Cruz Conte Grand at 5:30. In another game, in that period history could have changed, but in this it had been written a while ago, especially by an Athens that practically played without Arn and even seemed tired: the final was going to the fifth point in four days.

Regarding scoring, in Racing Assum (18), Peralta (15) and Ortiz (15) led; for Atenas, Montero (19), Buemo (16), who left due to fouls, and Zurchsmitten (15).

Game 1: Atenas 80 – Racing de Chivilcoy 72

Game 2: Atenas 67 – Racing de Chivilcoy 73

Game 3: Racing de Chivilcoy 68 – Atenas 74

Game 4: Racing de Chivilcoy 84 – Atenas 70

· Game 5: Thursday 7/20 | 21 hours in Córdoba for Basquet Pass.