“We apologize to our fans and to the club. We lost because we played badly and Cividale better than us.” It is a decidedly disappointed Antimo Martino who showed up in the press room after the internal defeat matured against the Friuli team 56 to 53. “There are no easy matches in this championship, but we haven’t put the will to win in the right and necessary way – Martino began in analyzing the match -. It will be my job and the staff to solve some problems and present us at the next match (Sunday at the Palafiera against Cento, ed) in a better way, trying during the week to bring everyone to the same physical condition”.
The match saw the return of Nathan Adrian and Fabio Valentini, not 100% in condition. But Martino isn’t looking for an excuse: “We didn’t lose because they weren’t in the right condition, like Daniele Cinciarini and Lorenzo Penna who had to stop on Thursday fearing a muscle injury, but we weren’t clear-headed in understanding the match and from my point of view It’s very serious. I was hoping we could play it better.” It was a bad evening for archery, but for the coach “even the development of the internal game needs to be improved despite not having area players”.
Yet Unieuro had steered the match onto the right track after a contracted start: “We had given an important swerve (partial of 14 to 0, ed), but we didn’t raise or slow down the pace when we would have liked – he observes -. wrong management of the match and then basketball knows how to punish you. I put my face in it, we accept it and next week we will try to present ourselves in the best way”.
But what caused the lackluster evening at shooting? “We shot with 22% with three of our best shooters (Adrian, Valentini and Cinciarini, ed) who usually shoot with more than 40%. Obviously there was little leg and energy, but when you don’t make a basket from outside you have to find a “another door and don’t slam into the closed one. We shot more from three than from two because the Cividale defense allowed us, and when we had to take shots with courage we didn’t do it. It is evident that the pressure took over in some moments”.
The big men’s department was underserved: “Due to our characteristics we are a more perimeter team, playing with little lucidity we created few dynamic situations, letting ourselves be tempted by the 3-point shot on an evening when we didn’t score”. From Martino come “the compliments to Cividale, because she put herself in a position to win the match and in the final she succeeded with determination”.
