Garello battled against the double and triple mark. Photos: Juanjo Cavalcante
Provincial defeated Belgrano de San Nicolás 97-92 in extra time in the match that opened the fifth date of region 1 of the Federal League. The game was dizzying, lackluster, hot but emotional, and it was opened by Rojo in overtime with triples by D’Angelo (16) and Fernández (17). Fede Pérez had 25, Garello 18. In Belgrano 28 from Lagger.
Teams are sometimes their circumstances and what they do with them, how they adapt to difficulties and solve adversity. Belgrano de San Nicolás lost his point guard Nicolás Maffei and his pivot Joaquín Lallana in a week due to injuries and that is why Daniel Maffei had to resort to a game metamorphosis for his duel against Provincial, which involved pressure from the entire field and double or triple marking against Garello when the ball went down. He bet on the kid Vercelli in driving and decided to face the game in fifth gear, because as a bald philosopher from the Sixth would say, when the car goes fast you don’t see that it’s scratched.
The invitation suited Provincial well and although he changed good with bad, in the second half of the first quarter he dealt with the pressure well and scored frequently with Fede Pérez (25), added to Garello’s dominance near the basket (18 points and a thousand rebounds) .
Belgrano went into vertigo all by himself and lost many balls with unforced errors, but Maffei did not budge from his idea. The conviction began to pay off in the second set, when from the madness of speed it was Provincial who stopped solving well, while the visitors took advantage of the bewilderment. The triples appeared thanks to Núñez and Lagger and Belgrano came to the fore until a couple of interventions by Fernández allowed Provin to close 36-32 up.
The errors worsened for the third quarter, added to the appearance of the zone defenses and the visits to the free throw line. Franco D’Ángelo began to be a factor, but Belgrano responded with triples.
At that point, the weather had already warmed up (will there be a quiet game in this area?), Maffei measured the technical resistance capacity of the judges and the errors of both teams were added to the garishness of the scorer, who changed sides every time. At that point, the judges were already suffering to keep the duel on track.
But what bad but even games have is that they give away a share of emotion. And it was no exception. Belgrano found the triples at the key moment and it seemed that he was winning the match (Lagger 28) when he put himself in front 79-74 with a triple by Calcaterra (13). But no. A triple by Pérez (in the video you can see that he is walking) gave Provincial life and two singles from Entre Ríos took the game to overtime, but not before going through the purgatory of the shot scored by Eterovich (14) just out of time that the referees first gave it valid and after reviewing it they annulled.
The one they were wrong favored Provincial and the one they got right favored Provincial. It didn’t take much more for Belgrano to explode with anger. And in the context of extra time, the fine hand of Fernández (17) and D’Ángelo (16) took a light advantage that this time Belgrano could not discount despite his courage.
Belgrano had a good plan within his circumstances, but Provincial adapted, knew how to solve it at the key moment and went from a start with doubts to a take-off platform to work more calmly in search of his identity.
SYNTHESIS
PROVINCIAL 97: Renzo D’Amari 1, Franco D’Angelo 16, Pablo Fernández 17, Federico Pérez 25, Vicente Garello 18 (fi), Tomás Gómez 3, Matías Quiroga 7, Lucas Rodríguez 6, Dardo Centanaro 0, Matías Rosas 4. DT: Gustavo Lime.
BELGRANO 92: Santino Vercelli 11, Octavio Lagger 28, Genaro Calcaterra 13, Elías Eterovich 14, Lucas Núñez 14 (fi), Juan Delon 3, Ignacio Alimena 8, Renzo Maffei 1, Santino Viale 0. DT: Daniel Maffei.
STADIUM: Salvador Bonilla
REFEREES: Alejandro Araujo and Gonzalo Ponce
PARTIALS: 23/14, 36/32 and 59/55
On board
The table has Provincial 8 (3-2), Somisa 7 (3-1), Belgrano 7 (2-3), Regatas 6 (3-0), Gimnasia 6 (2-2), Atalaya 6 (2-2 ), Sportsmen 4 (1-2), Temperley 4 (1-2), Náutico 3 (0-3).
