BARQUISIMETO (Venezuela) – This Sunday, Venezuela won the first crown in its history in the South American Women’s Under-15 Championship. The team defeated Colombia 59-72 in the Final at the Bolivariano Dome in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. In this way, the Venezuelans join Brazil, Argentina and Chile as the monarchs of the tournament. For their part, the New Granadans have won their second consecutive silver medal and the third in their history. Both teams are qualified for the FIBA Women’s Under-16 AmeriCup in 2025. The Venezuelan flag has positioned itself at the top of the podium in the last two weeks. First it was in Pasaje, Ecuador, with the men’s delegation in the South American U-15 Championship and now with the women’s team precisely in Venezuelan territory. The best position they had achieved in history was second. Up to four times – and in three of the last six tournaments – they won the silver medal. Albanys Ramírez, designated the Most Valuable Player of the contest, finished with 24 points, 12 rebounds, two assists and the same number of steals. The power forward started the game with 18 points, including two triples. In the second half offensive production dropped with only six goals, but it was key at the start.
Albanys Ramírez
Greidysmar Camacaro and Valeria Rodríguez scored consecutive triples with two minutes left in the third quarter and extended the lead to nine points (50-59). At that moment it was the maximum advantage for Venezuela and its opponent could not recover from that partial. Camacaro’s triples stopped the Colombian momentum. The guard hit 3 shots from the perimeter and finished with 10 points. He also stole 3 balls and captured 3 boards. Alexandra Cabeza protected the basket with 13 catches of raffled balls, 9 blocks and added 8 points. Likewise, Estefani Pérez distributed 3 blocks, grabbed 8 rebounds and accumulated 6 points. Colombia collapsed offensively in the second half. She did not score a goal from 3:06 of the third period until 7:35 of the fourth period, when María Millán scored a free throw. His first successful field goal in the last ten minutes came with just 3:09 left on a three-pointer from Elba Escorcia. For Colombia, Keren Bertel scored 14 points, followed by Escorcia and María Millán, who added 13 points each. Venezuela became strong in the painted area. Although they dominated the rebounds by only two points (53-51), they scored 32 points in the paint and provided a total of 12 blocks. They also did not allow high percentage baskets from their rival, who finished with a low 16% effectiveness in double baskets (8-49) and 23% in field goals (18-76).
FIBA
