Final day of the IWBF America’s U23 qualifiers was a fight to finish on a high, although the rankings had already been decided.
The first game was between Chile, who were looking to get their first win of the tournament, up against a tough Brazilian team. Brazil took the game to the young Chilean team from the start, and the size of the Brazilian’s proved too much for Chile to handle with quarter scores of 22 -10, 20 – 4, 18 -4, 21 -7, it was the Brazilian’s who finished on a high 81- 25. Brazil were led by Paulo De Souza, who top scored with 36 points for the game, whilst Sergio Moreira led the scoring for Chile with 12 points.
In the second match of the day host’s Argentina were looking to put on a show to impress their home crowd and give the fantastic support they had received all tournament a game to watch. However the USA were out to defend their unbeaten run and demonstrated this in the first half dominating the game from early on and pushing out to 39 – 6 lead at half time. In the second half USA rotated their bench and gave all their players valuable time. Argentina showed great spirit and fight to win the final quarter 10 – 9, although it was the USA who took home a comfortable victory, 66-18, and the title of IWBF U23 America’s Champion 2017.
Jeromie Meyer was top scorer for USA with 15 points whilst Ivan Gomez ended up with the share of Argentina’s points with 8 points.
Final Standings
- USA
- Brazil
- Argentina
- Chile
MVP for the tournament was awarded to USA’s Kyle Gribble.
