MIAMI (United States) – Quimsa was one of the teams that left the best impression during the first stage of BCL Americas games played in the month of December. The team won both of their Group B home games and showed great collective cohesion, to the point where they didn’t even miss their leading scorer, Brandon Robinson, when he had to leave the second game early due to injury.

Point guard Juan Brussino was a key reason why the Santiago del Estero squad performed so well, co-leading the tournament in efficiency alongside SESI Franca’s Lucas Dias, with 24.0.

Brusinno averaged 16.5 points with a torrid 75 percent on three-pointers (6 of 8) and added 4.5 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.0 steals.

“I think I was able to take advantage of what my teammates gave me in the opportunities of taking outside shots. I think it depends a lot on how the team is playing, how it works, and well, from there read situations and take advantage of them. There are days when the ball goes in and it is a little easier, and there are others when you must work harder, but you give your all for the team. Everything is a consequence of the team's work and not giving up, and that's what I try to do in every game. I am very happy, but I know we must continue, this is long,” the 32-year-old point guard commented on his performance, while also giving credit to his teammates.

Quimsa’s start to the season after winning Argentina’s domestic league last year makes it easy to predict that the team is once again ready for big things. Last year, besides winning the domestic title, they reached the BCL Americas semifinals. They’re now sitting at 13-1 in LNB and 2-0 at the continental level. About that hot start, Brussino thinks that keeping most of last year’s core, plus a positive attitude from their reinforcements, has been the key.

“Knowing the coach and adding players who arrived without any demands has been very important for us. From there, we’ve been able to create a work group where every training session and every game is taken seriously, understanding the club we’re representing and the goals we have. We’re valuing both the domestic league and (BCLA) very highly.”

Head coach Leandro Ramella has been the man at the helm for Quimsa. The young Argentinian coach arrived last year deep into both the domestic league and BCLA campaigns but had the ability to lead them to the aforementioned heights.

“Leandro, when he arrived, set some rules on defense. Then, on offense, he gave us ball movement and trust in every one of the players. As the games went on, he made us feel like a team, and that was important because everyone found their role and felt like they belonged on the team. That was the key of winning the domestic league and reaching the Champions League semifinals. I remember that during the first month of his arrival, it was very hard in terms of training, but once we got used to it, that strengthened us, and we were able to take advantage of all our capacity to achieve everything we achieved. Those are things that one values a lot as a player,” said Brussino about the contributions of his coach.

Quimsa weres Basketball Champions League Americas first-ever champions back in the 2019-20 season, and then we’ve seen Brazilian squads dominating the competition as Flamengo, São Paulo and SESI Franca won it. Brussino says they’re going to do everything possible to reach the top of the mountain again.

“We’ve been doing our job by reaching the last two Final Fours. We need to make that push that would allow us to reach the Final, and once we’re there, it is a single, 50/50 game against any team. I think our goal this year is to keep competing in each game as we have been doing, knowing that we have four road games left. We hope to get back into one of those matchups (in the Quarterfinals) and then be able to be in the Semifinals again. That would set the bar very high for us and at a very competitive level where there are great teams and great players. We’ll work to achieve that goal.”

During this next Group Stage games, Quimsa will play on January 26th in Buenos Aires, where Nacional will act as the home team. A day later, the 27th, they’ll go up against São Paulo. Despite a great start at home, the Santiago del Estero squad will now have to validate those performances on the read to advance to the next round.

“We have a very even team. We know that São Paulo came to Quimsa with some absences and that the game’s final score (112-65) was something of a fluke. We respect the São Paulo players a lot, we know they’re a dominant team. About Nacional, we know they have a great trio of foreigners and that their local players contribute all their effort. The truth is that I see an even group and I think that the classification will be disputed until the last stage. For us, the next four road games will be a nice opportunity to show ourselves that we are ready for important things,” said the older brother of Argentina’s National Team member, Nicolás Brussino.

FIBA