Two matches with very high stakes

MIAMI (United States) - Thursday was the opening of the BCL Americas' second window and it was heart-stopping, one of those days you don't easily forget. Both matches, from Zones A and B were defined in the last couple of seconds, showing a good and similar level of competition. Caballos and Quimsa won their respective matches against Titanes and Universidad de Concepción and they consolidated themselves as candidates for the quarterfinals. Today, there'll be two thrilling matches.

Day: 5/3. Local time: 7:40pm. TV: DIRECTV Sports and DAZN.
Referees: Juan Fernández (Argentina), Felipe Ibarra (Chile) and Jesed Díaz (Puerto Rico).
Stadium: Coliseo Deportivo Elias Chegwin, Barranquilla, Colombia.

Caballos de Coclé has a small advantage in Group A, and it will seek to ratify that tonight against Real Estelí. In this window's first match, Panama’s champion defeated the locals in Barranquilla, Titanes, 80-79, and it is now the only team with two victories and one defeat. The team led by Flor Meléndez will rely again on its star, Ernesto Oglivie, the MVP against Titanes: 22 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.

In turn, Real Estelí has an experienced base with Renaldo Balkman and Jezreel De Jesús, and it also has reinforcements in Javier Mojica and Alexander Franklin. The team from Nicaragua needs a victory to have a positive record and move closer to the playoffs.

Day: 5/3. Local time: 7:10pm. TV: DIRECTV Sports and DAZN.
Referees: Julio César Anaya Freile (Panama), Rodrigo León Mejía Mesa (Colombia) and Gonzalo Salgueiro Martí (Uruguay).
Stadium: Gimnasio de la Casa del Deporte, Concepción, Chile.

Quimsa is the competition's current champion and it shows that match after match. The encounter against Universidad de Concepción got more complicated than expected and in the last shot, the champion's spirit appeared and took the victory with an agonizing double from Mauro Cosolito (99-97). Now, they'll want to ratify that against Sao Paulo, the team that defeated them in the first window in Buenos Aires, and look for the first position in Group B. For this window, the team from Santiago del Estero recovered Leonardo Mainoldi, one of the most emblematic players of the institution in the last years.

Sao Paulo reaches this stage as one of the undefeated teams of the competition, and with the first window's MVP, Lucas Mariano, who wants to keep that title in this part of the tournament. In Buenos Aires, it won a very tight match against Quimsa 75-72, and it knows it has to stay focused to win both matches in Chile (this Saturday it will face the locals, Universidad de Concepción), and therefore confirm its classification to the quarterfinals.

FIBA