In a tournament like the Basketball Champions League Americas, with a home and away game format, playing at home is crucial for the teams that want the title. And Quimsa brought all their credentials as a strong candidate by defeating Uruguay's Aguada in the debut – leaving their opponents shaken. With this result, the locals took a huge step forward toward the qualification.

It was an 87-61 win for the Santiago team who, in front of their people, shone as brightly as is expected during an enormous tournament. This was despite the fact that in the beginning there were serious doubts due to the 7-0 quarter led by the Uruguayans. However, the locals quickly shifted their mindsets with a 16-0 and a high-flight game.

Quimsa based their performance on the collective game, sharing the scores and knowing how to dominate to will. The greatest scorer was Brandon Robinson, with 18 points, but there were also several high scorers like Juan Brussino (who left in the third quarter due to a pain in his left ankle) and important contributions by Leonardo Mainoldi and Ismael Romero.

Aguada only relied on what could be done by Lee Roberts, their great offensive ticket, who did 28 of the team’s 61 points. Behind him, only Tony Mitchell got to the double-digits with 12 points, and Leandro García Morales scored a mere 5 points.

But Quimsa never hit the breaks because when Miguel Volcan’s men tried to react, the hosts overpowered them with an eye-catching passing game and, above all, with great determination in every play. How do you explain such a significant difference between one team and another? That's easy – Quimsa won in all aspects. They owned the rebounds (40-35), they used their rivals’ errors to the fullest, they were superior in the fast breaks (30-12) and, above all, they defined the game with the points coming in from the bench, which were 34, while Aguada could only do 7.

The team led by Sebastián González will have their next commitment in the following window when they visit Brazil's Franca, on November 26. As for Aguada, they’ll also face Brazil this next Friday starting at 7:30 PM.