CONCEPCIÓN (Chile) -  With revenge on their minds, Quimsa defeated São Paulo 73-65 despite blowing a five-point halftime lead and struggling for stretches in the second half.

A familiar hero stepped up in the end to help Quimsa make up for their previous loss to São Paulo in the first window of BCLAmericas group play. One day after making a stellar, clutch defensive play that turned into a last second layup to give his club the victory, Mauro Cosolito once again made a winning gamble late in the game.

Cosolito finished with only seven points, but with the Argentine club up by two with only 20 seconds remaining, the 6ft 3in (1.9m) forward stole the ball from São Paulo and capped the game with two free throws.

While Cosolito’s defense shined bright, Quimsa also saw Brandon Robinson bounce back. After playing a shaky game vs. Universidad de Concepción on Thursday, the team’s leading scorer dropped 17 points on just five made field goals. Robinson looked like his own self as he was creating looks from all over the floor and getting to the free throw line with ease.

In addition to Robinson, Diamon Simpson had another big outing on the interior, dropping a double-double of 10 points and 10 boards. Nicolas Copello was the final player in double figures for Quimsa as he put up 11 points.

While getting enormous performances from key players obviously helped Quimsa take down their opponent, their transition game was also critical to victory. They scored seven more points off turnovers than São Paulo and had six more fast break points. Speeding up the pace of the game limited São Paulo’s ability to get into their half court sets and dump the ball into the paint, where they seemed to have great success.

Kenny Montrell Dawkins led the Brazilian club with 19 points, while the remainder of the starters also scored in double figures. Lucas Mariano, in particular, was unstoppable on the interior with 14 points and six rebounds.

Quimsa dominated most of the opening half as they led for 16 plus minutes and took a lead that was as many as 13 points. São Paulo made a late charge, though, cutting their halftime deficit to only five points.
They continued that success in the second half, but beating a great team twice in a row is extremely difficult, especially with a lack of bench scoring.

Quimsa (3-1) will be back in action in Group B on March 28 when they take on Universidad de Concepcion for the final time in group play. São Paulo (2-1) will play their last game of the second window on Saturday vs. UDC.

FIBA