BARQUISIMETO (South American Women’s Championship) – The Group Phase of the 2016 South American Women’s Championship has concluded with victories for Brazil and Colombia, now qualified to the Semi-Finals of the competition along with Venezuela and Argentina.

Colombia opened the day with a win over Uruguay by the score of 83-42. The Uruguayans battled and even closed the first quarter only down by six points in the scoreboard, but Colombia was too much in every possible match-up and especially in the rebounding department that they dominated to the tune of 56-31. With the victory, Colombia qualified to the semifinals of the competition for the first time since the 2010 edition that was played in Valdivia, Chile (in which they won the Bronze medal).

Maria Delgado came up big for Colombia in the last game of the Group Phase with 23 points and 5 rebounds in the win.

Brazil was even more dominating in their victory over Paraguay by the score of 128-35. The defending champs put on a show since tip-off, scoring 39 points in the first quarter against only 19 from the Paraguayans, that could not establish any kind of rhythm throughout the game. Brazil won it big and closed the Group Phase with an undefeated record (3-0), beating every team in Group A by a combined 59.3 points per game.

Patricia was the leading scorer with 19 points for a Brazilian squad that had 7 players scoring in double figures.