Pallacanestro Cantù hosts Cremona in the big match of the green group.
Pallacanestro Cantù hosts Cremona in the big match of the green group
It is the most awaited challenge of the 2022/2023 regular season, the one between Acqua S.Bernardo Cantù and Vanoli Cremona, the two top seeds in the A2 series Green Group. Double ball Sunday 8 January at 5 pm on the Desio parquet. In the first leg, coach Meo Sacchetti’s team lost at PalaRadi 65-54. It will therefore be necessary to try to win at the PalaFitLine with a gap of more than 11 points to have the difference in favor. In that match it was fatal for Cantù the 25-16 suffered in the first fraction. Acqua S.Bernardo then managed to keep up with their opponents at times in the second half, especially with Stefan Nikolic, who scored 23 points.
The path of Cantu
From that October 16th to today, Cantù has become more and more aware of his means, putting together an important positive streak (11 wins in a row in the league) which has brought the biancoblù to the top of the standings with 26 points. The Cremonese, who follow with 22 points, instead lost three away games in the first round: 86-82 at home in Turin, 64-61 in Treviglio and 85-66 in Piacenza. The biancoblù come from 23 consecutive successes on the Desio parquet between the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 seasons.
I roster
The best scorer for the Cremona team is the 1998 guard Davide Denegri (13.9 points per game), followed by the 1993 US center Jalen Cannon (13.6 points), the 1992 wing Mirza Alibegovic (10 ,1) and by the Italian-Cameroonian guard from 2000 Paul Eboua (9,9). Cannon is also the best rebounder with 6.1 per game. The 1991 American guard Trevor Lacey played only the first five games of the championship, who recovered after the stop for the fracture of the metacarpal of his left hand. Ex on duty: Jonathan Tabu (born in 1985), Congolese point guard with Belgian passport who played in Cantù from 2010 to 2013. For Tabu nine appearances so far in Cremona with nine points per game on average. He returned to the field last December 28, in the quarter-final match of the Italian Cup won against Pistoia by 80-67, the ’97 guard Andrea Pecchia, returning after months of break due to ligament rupture. Pecchia played in Brianza from 2019 to 2021. Coach Sacchetti coached Vanoli from 2017 to 2020, winning the Serie A1 Italian Cup in 2019.
Previous
In addition to the knockout on the third day of the first round, Cantù this season also lost to Vanoli in the semifinal of the Serie A2 Super Cup in September (60-77). The precedents in the official competitions are in favor of the Canturini with 16 victories out of 25 races played. In the last season in Serie A1, in 2020/2021, one success for each side: a very heavy knockout of the biancoblù away for 101-67 and a convincing success in Desio for 92-85. Nicola Berdini will be able to play with a protective mask, after the slight fracture to his nasal bones suffered in Rieti. Nikolic, who was rested in the Lazio away match due to a blow he suffered in training, will most likely be on the pitch. To be evaluated in these hours instead Francesco Stefanelli for an ankle problem.
The words of coach Sacchetti
«We hope to get to this big match better than we played in Rieti – commented coach Sacchetti -. In the last match we did very well in fits and starts, but then we looked at ourselves a bit and suffered. In the end, we took her home anyway. Now we host Cremona, a team that needs no introduction. We have some physical problems, but we don’t have to think about who is there and who isn’t. I take an example from the match that Turin made against Vanoli, when five managed to win against all odds. I expect an important environment and atmosphere. I’m sure the Cantù crowd will do their part in the stands, we’ll do ours on the pitch. A great challenge awaits us ».
