In the opening game of the Women’s South American Championships a strong Brazilian team took on Argentina. For both teams, it was their first international competition since they competed at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, but it was Brazil who showed they were the team to beat with a convincing first quarter, 22 – 4, continuing the form that had seen them gain their highest ever Paralympic Games finish. Led by center Vileide Almeida and her tally of 18 points, Brazil took a comfortable lead of 28 points into the half time break.

The gap allowed Brazil to rotate their bench and try out all of their line-ups in the second half. Almeida continued her fine shooting form finishing with a total of 26 points supported by Debra Costa’s 21 points. They outscored Argentina 25 -16, giving them the first win of the tournament 65 -28. Mariana Perez and Maria Pallares top scored for Argentina, with 10 and 8 points, respectively.

The second game was slow to get started as hosts Peru took on Chile, with only two baskets a piece in the first quarter. Peru pushed ahead in the second quarter outscoring Chile, 11 – 2, on the strength of an 8 point output by Pilar Jáuregui.

Momentum stuck with Peru in the second half and with quarter scores of 10 – 4 and 14 – 6, they got their first win in front of an excited home crowd, Peru 39 – 16 Chile. Peru’s Pilar Jáuregui added another 6 points to her first half total to finish the game as top scorer with 14 points, and for Chile, Daniela Alegría led the scoring with 8 points.

Wednesday’s games will see Chile take on Brazil at 16:00 followed by Argentina against Peru at 18:15.

Games are being streamed on the organisers Facebook page and can be found here – https://www.facebook.com/SudamericanoBSSRPeru2017

Results

Day One