MIAMI (United States) – This Thursday January 9 marks the beginning of the second set of Group Stage games for Basketball Champions League Americas Groups B, C and D, while Group A teams, who didn’t play in December, will make their debuts. During this slate, Group D will get things going. Their games will take place on January 9-11 at Centro de Deportes Colectivos in Santiago, Chile, where CDC Leones will be the host. Then, Groups C and B will play on the 12th-14th. Biguá will be the home team for Group C at Estadio 8 de Junio in Paysandú, Uruguay. Toros de Chiriquí will host Group B at Arena Roberto Duran in Panama City. Finally, Group A will take place between the 16th and 18th, with Real Estelí as the host club at Polideportivo Alexis Argüello in Managua, Nicaragua.
You can see the full calendar here. This is all you need to know ahead of Group Stage 2 of BCL Americas: Where can I watch the games? All the games will be broadcast on DIRECTV in South America. And for those looking to stream the action, Courtside 1891, FanDuel TV and the BCL Americas Youtube page are your destinations to follow the games live and catch the highlights. What teams performed best in the first stage? Brazilian squads Flamengo, Minas and SESI Franca dominated their games and finished undefeated in Groups B, C and D, respectively. You can find the group standings here. Flamengo and SESI Franca share the honors for the top offense at 84.5 points per game, while Minas had the best defense – allowing only 66.5 points to their opponents.
Franca also led in three-point accuracy at 37.1 percent and two-point field goal percentage at 65.5. Flamengo led in rebounding at 44.5 per game, while Minas led with 8.5 steals per game. Who were the top performers of the first stage? You can look at the first stage top performers here. Some of the players who produced excellent performances include Quimsa shooting guard Agustín Pérez, who’s the leading scorer at 19.5 points per game. Tavario Miller, also of Quimsa, leads in rebounds (11.0) while Joshua Webster of Leones leads in assists (9.0).
You can also look at all the statistical leaders here. Have teams made moves ahead of the January games? At the time of publishing, defending champions Quimsa signed shooting guard Prince Ali to help them bounce back after consecutive losses.
It also seems like SESI Franca will get back their star power forward (and Brazilian National Team stalwart) Lucas Dias, who missed the December window due to injury. Dias is already back training alongside his teammates. Meanwhile, Boca Juniors loaned out shooting guard Nicolás Stenta, and among the players that could replace him in the roster are Martín Torriani, Tiago Drocezesky and Fidel Cifuentes.
CDC Leones has added Dominicans Fausto Pichardo and Luis Martínez to the roster, replacing Gabriel Belardo and Anyeuri Castillo. FIBA