San Martin are Final bound after Group F sweep

BARQUISIMETO (Liga Sudamericana) - Newcomers they may be, but San Martin de Corrientes are playing like veterans in the 2015 DIRECTV Liga Sudamericana.

Making their bow in the competition, Argentina outfit San Martin are making the most of it.

After sweeping all before them in the Group Phase, the team led by impressive coach Jorge Gonzalez did the same in the Semi-Final Round this week with victories over Mogi Das Cruzes (79-75), Franca Basketball Clube (96-77) and Group F hosts Guaros de Lara (78-70).

The triumphs have lifted San Martin into a best-of-three Liga Sudamericana Final showdown with UniCEUB BRB, the Group E winners.

From the very beginning against Brazilians Mogi Das Cruzes, a team that finished runners-up in the competition last season, San Martin showed they were for real.

Next came a game against Franca Basketball Clube, also of Brazil, and San Martin underlined their status as an excellent team.

Then against a very good Guaros team that was seething after falling the night before to Mogi Das Cruzes, San Martin held their nerve and prevailed.

No team had a grip on Group F supremacy until the final buzzer of San Martin's triumph over Venezuelans Guaros, a game that was played before a boisterous arena in Barquisimeto.

A Guaros win would have left the two teams, along with Mogi Das Cruzes, with 2-1 records and required a goal differential tie-breaker to decide first place.

San Martin took matters into their own hands with Larry O'Bannon Jr pouring in 18 points to lead a balanced scoring attack.

Big man Jeremiah Wood had 16 points and six rebounds and Bulgarian Aleksandar Georgiev contributed 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Argentinian Nestor 'Che' Garcia, the boss of Guaros and Venezuela's FIBA Americas Championship winning side this summer, was the coach everyone was buzzing about before Group F play.

But it was another Argentinian coach, Jorge Gonzalez, who won the day with San Martin.

"We are very happy," Gonzalez said.

"It's a great satisfaction.

"There was a lot of adrenaline because of playing on the road, in this context, at this stage, against a great team with a tremendous coaching staff.

"We had the personality to play with all that, to control time, to play with the style that they had in mind, a requirement that we had to get many points and do it for us.

"To stay undefeated and classify in the end gives us immense joy ...

"The truth is, we're very happy with what we are doing out here in the Liga Sudamericana."

The Final against Uniceub tips off 3 December in Brasilia with Game 2 in Corrientes 9 December.

A third and deciding Game 3, if needed, would also be in Corrientes the following day, 10 December.

FIBA