Abejas fell 86-87 to Santos in the LNBP on Saturday evening, a result that turned a narrow defeat into something sharper. We had backed the hosts at 53 per cent confidence, but the match went the other way — and here's the thing, it wasn't the shooting that killed it.
Guests took the game by the throat with their defensive rebounding and turnover discipline. Eight turnovers against seventeen tells you where the contest was won, even if the scoreline looked close.
Santos pulled 36 rebounds to 34, but the split mattered more. Twelve defensive boards apiece isn't where the story lives — it was seventeen offensive rebounds against eight that kept them on the floor when they needed to.
Their field goal numbers tell a different tale. Thirty-one made shots from sixty-eight attempts against thirty from fifty-eight, yet the visitors also shot worse from three, seven out of twenty-seven to ten out of twenty-five. And here's the thing, it was the free throws that swung it — eighteen from eighteen versus sixteen from twenty-five.
Steals showed the gap in intensity. Thirteen for the visitors, three for the hosts, and you can see it in the turnover column. By then the rhythm had shifted, and Abejas found themselves chasing rather than controlling.
The result leaves Santos with momentum after mixed runs, while Abejas have dropped two of five in this stretch. Not a collapse, but a reminder that close games are decided on the margins — and this time they weren't on the home side.
