Franca wants to go further

FRANCA (Brazil) - Sesi Franca is one of the Brazilian teams that grew the most in the last years. With a solid project led by coach Helinho, it managed to succeed not only in its country, but also in the continent. In its second participation at the Basketball Champions League Americas, it will strive for more.

"We'll reach the BCL Americas in a good position, since we're already competing in the NBB (Brazil's national basketball league). Motivation is great and we expect to have a good first round and achieve the goal of classifying to the Final Four," said Franca's coach, Helinho.

For this season, the Brazilian team wasn't able to keep David Jackson and Rafael Hettsheimeir, important players when they won the South American League in 2018, the Paulista State Basketball Championships in 2018 and 2019, and the Super 8 Basketball Tournament in 2019. As replacements, they brought Jamaal Smith, South American League champion in 2019 with Botafogo, and Rodney Green, who has vast experience playing for big teams in Israel, Ukraine, Italy, France, Hungary, Paraguay, Argentina, Venezuela, and Mexico. They also have Lucas Dias, NBB's top scorer, with an average of 24,3 points per game.

Franca will debut at the BCL Americas against Obras Basket, in Group C, also formed by San Lorenzo. The team from Sao Paulo was the runner-up of the last Brazilian league and reached the quarterfinals of the first edition of the BCL Americas, when it was eliminated by San Lorenzo.

FIBA