SAN JUAN (William Rosario's Somewhere in the Americas) - Last week, Quito hosted for the third time in the last five years, the South American Club Championship for Women's. After all was said and done, the Brazilian Club Sport Recife won the championship, adding to the now 16 straight editions in which Brazil has won it all. But that doesn't tell the whole story…

I ran into South American Confederation President, Mr Gerasime Bozikis, last week during the FIBA Americas Congress and he was ecstatic about the Championship.

"We've never had this parity in a women's event. It was wonderful," said Bozikis.

"This now has the potential to be a competition with continuity."

He's right. This year was historic in the competitiveness of the championship. Yes, Recife won the title, but it was a one point (83-82) victory over the Colombian club La Estancia on a last-second basket from Tatiane Pacheco Nascimiento.

It was a tough competitive game and that is a rarity in this championship. To look at the last time this tournament was played in 2012 is to watch an ADCF Unimed Brazilian squad that won every game by 25 points or more.

It was total dominance, and to be honest, that is a tough watch. But this year the tune changed, not only in the parity aspect, but 2014 saw the presence of continental star players in the lineups.

Paola Ferrari was one of those standouts. The Paraguayan player had an outstanding tournament for host team U.T.E in which she averaged 26 points, 7.0 assists and 4.0 rebounds in a 3rd place finish for the Ecuadorian club.

In total, there were six players of five different teams that averaged over 20 points in the championship. (It was precisely Ferrari the only one to do it in 2012.)

There were other great performers and recognizable faces in the tournament. Veteran Adriana Pinto was there for the champion Recife and she also had a wonderful tournament with 16 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists per game.

All in all, it was definitely a must see event in terms of Women's basketball in the continent.

Now, there are people that need to be applauded for the effort involved in making this type of tournament happen.

There's of course the vision of Bozikis. He has fought hard to keep this competition alive in a climate in which any kind of women's basketball event (even big national team championships) struggle to find a home. Then, once it finds a host city, there's the money issue. The reality of it is that sponsors are hard to come by for tournaments with virtually no exposure like this one.

Then you need organized and competitive teams, good marketing, timing, etc... It is a hard and laborious endeavor.

But the stars aligned for this edition and Ecuador presented itself once again as a responsible host, the money appeared, the teams were amazing et voila!, we had a great 2014 championship.

Ecuador deserves a special shout out, though. We are talking about a country that has not had a heralded basketball history, especially on the women's side of it. They played in one World Championship, in 1971 and have not even played in a continental championship since. But they have decided, in this era of the niche appreciation, to become the capital of the club championships for women in the Americas.

Bra-vo!

This is how you develop basketball in your country. Argentineans still cite the birth of their national league as the defining moment for everything that happened with basketball in the country. They had so many foreign, mainly USA players, in the league, that basketball came up to that level and an understanding of the game grew out of it.

The same can happen for Ecuadorian women's basketball. Time will tell. Maybe there are little girls watching this tournament that will fall in love with the game and become future stars for the country. Maybe, maybe not. At least the South American Club Championship for Women has made that possibility a real one.

In the end, Pinto was named the MVP of the championship, but I'll use Kevin Durant's words from his now famous press conference when he too received the MVP award for this season in the NBA, to me, for what you are possibly doing for the development of our sport in the continent and for women… Ecuador, you are the real MVP.  

William Rosario

FIBA Americas

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