ICCAN won the women's Liga Nacional title on Saturday, beating LEOPAT 71-62 in the third and deciding game of a best-of-three Finals that had gone to the wire twice before it was settled. The two sides were level at 17-17 after the first quarter and separated by a single point at the interval, 33-32 to ICCAN. The third quarter, which ICCAN took 20-13, produced the lead (53-45) that LEOPAT never managed to close.
Brittany Autry (185-C-1998, college:
Belm.Abbey) led the winners with 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting and 11 rebounds, four of them offensive.
Florencia Ortiz (160-PG-1999) added 18 points and a team-high 12 rebounds, while
Arianna Macias (175-G-1997, college:
St.Mary's) contributed 14 points from the bench-adjacent minutes she was given, making 4 of 6 from the field and 2 of 3 from three.
Doris Lasso (164-G-1993) chipped in 10 points and 7 rebounds. ICCAN's biggest lead was 15, and its best unanswered run was 13 points.
For LEOPAT,
Dayanna Salcedo (176-C/F-1989) scored 13 points, though it took her 18 attempts to get there.
Jenifer Munoz (170-F-1991) and
Genesis Zabaleta (180-C-2002) each had 8, Zabaleta adding 7 rebounds. LEOPAT shot 22-of-72 from the field (30 per cent) and 5-of-18 from beyond the arc, and it was out-rebounded 51-42 despite taking 13 offensive boards. Its 13 steals kept the game within reach for longer than the shooting suggested. ICCAN gave the ball away 17 times but outscored its opponent 38 points to the paint and went 19-of-27 at the line, against 13-of-20 for LEOPAT.
The series was as close as the final score was not. LEOPAT took Game 1 by 52-51 on October 6, ICCAN levelled it by 69-67 on October 9, and the decider followed the next evening at the Coliseo Luis Rivadeneira Polo, where both of ICCAN's wins were played. Emmanuel Jaime coached the champions, with Mateo Moncayo as his assistant; Miguel Salvitelli was in charge of LEOPAT.
