Coming from ten consecutive victories, the red-black basketball team took to the court to face Basquete Cearense in the Novo Basquete Brasil (NBB), on Wednesday night (17), at Tijuca Tênis Clube. The team from the Northeast managed to interrupt the Pride of the Nation's unbeaten streak with a tight 67-66 victory, in a very disputed match. But if Flamengo fell behind on the scoreboard, two red-blacks achieved individual records in the NBB: captain Marcelinho Machado reached the mark of 800 converted three-pointers in the competition and Olivinha reached 8.000 minutes played for Flamengo.

The match, played point-by-point until the final second, began with the Mais Querido team opening up an eight-point lead. In the final minutes of the period, the Ceará team managed to turn the game around and finished the first quarter with a partial 21-14 lead. José Neto's team came out swinging in the second period and even took the lead, but went into halftime trailing by a single point: Flamengo 30 to 31 Basquete Cearense.

After a third quarter similar to the previous two, in which FlaBasquete was outscored 51-49, the final quarter saw the teams alternate leads. Flamengo, the current three-time NBB champion and leader of the standings, lost by one point to Basquete Cearense, 67-66. Jason Robinson led the way with 14 points.

Coach José Neto believes the defeat can serve as a lesson for the team to grow. "We will continue fighting so that we can maintain this lead until the end, already thinking about the playoffs. A game like this is good for us to see the things we can improve," he said.  

 

The next commitment of Mais Querido will be this Saturday (20), against Vitória, at Tijuca Tênis Clube, at 17:30 pm, with live broadcast on RedeTV and the website of the National Basketball League (LNB). The Pride of the Nation also competes in the League of the Americas and already knows who it will face in the semifinal stage.