Flamengo remains undefeated in the Minas-Brasília Under-17 Basketball Cup in Brasília. After winning both opening games, the team defeated Lance Livre, from Brasília, 64-42, on Tuesday morning (July 17.07), in the third round. On Wednesday (July 18.07), Flamengo will have another double round: at 10:15 am, they face Sport Recife, to close the first round, and, at 16:15 pm, they face Minas, to open the second round. The two teams with the most wins will play in the final on Saturday (July 21.07).

Tuesday's game started evenly, but from the second quarter onward, Flamengo began to set its pace and opened up a healthy lead, which it held until the end. Flamengo's Junio ​​Duval led all scorers with 16 points. The team also welcomed back point guard Gabriel Guedes, who recovered from a sprained right ankle.

"Once again, we managed to impose our rhythm on the match. We have 12 players who think together as a team, and the team manages to maintain its strength and rhythm of play through substitutions. This is making a difference," explained coach Leonardo Bruno, highlighting the help of assistant Álvaro Sant'Anna, a former player with the club. "Since last year, he has been helping me a lot and has now become my direct assistant," he added.

For the next challenge, the coach expects a tough game against Sport.

"Sport has a good technical level, like most teams in the Northeast. It has many players who are short, but very fast and skillful. It will be another tough game, but we will try to impose our rhythm from the beginning," said the coach.

The coach is not worried about the team playing two games on the same day:

"This is how this tournament works, and because of that, the quarters are shorter, lasting eight minutes each. Furthermore, teams are required to make substitutions in each quarter, meaning a player cannot play in all four quarters. Of course, it's exhausting, especially mentally, but we've done good physical preparation and we have the support of our physiotherapist, Vitor Pessanha, who is very attentive to the players' performance," concluded Leo Bruno.