Semi-finals at the start, Reale Mutua Torino arrives in Treviglio

The playoffs in the A2 basketball series get even more alive, semifinals starting today, Saturday 27 May, in the Silver table with the Mascio Treviglio Group receiving the Reale Mutua Torino, while on the Desio parquet the Acqua S.Bernardo Cantù awaits the Giorgio Tesi Group Pistoia. It will only be the first act, race-1, of the series that on Monday 29th will see race-2 disputed, again in Treviglio and Desio.

Playoffs, semi-finals at the start with Treviglio receiving Turin

The bar is raised, the stakes are heavy: the passage of the round means reaching the final of the Silver scoreboard which is giving away a promotion in the Serie A championship 2023/2024. With the start of the playoff semi-finals in the A2 series basketball championship, the post season gets even more alive, the pressure increases for the teams and the expectations of the fans also grow. This evening, Saturday 27 May – duel at 20.30 – the Mascio Treviglio Group receives Reale Mutua Torino at the PalaFacchetti who have already met twice, in the first phase of the regular season, against the blue-and-whites inflicting two defeats. The 83-88 caught in the fifth leg at the PalaFacchetti (with Treviglio without Marco Giuri through injury and still without Luca Vitali) was the defeat that cost the bench to coach Michael Carreareplaced by Alessandro Finelli; while the Mascio Group (absent Pier Paolo Marini) gave way 89-81. However, once we reach the semi-final, everything resets and we start again, game after game.

The opponent: Reale Mutua Turin

Reale Mutua Torino beat Urania Milano 3-1 in the playoff quarter-finals, winning twice at the Allianz Cloud Palalido (82-74 match-3 and 89-87 match-4). The coaching team Frank Ciani, in the series against Milan, he averaged 84.25 points scored and 79.5 conceded. The yellow and blue “starting five” sees the 27-year-old Luke Vencato (7 points, 5.8 assists per match) in the control room with the 32-year-old American guard Demario Mayfield (10.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.4 assists) and the 28-year-old forward Niccolo De Vico (13.2 points, 5.4 rebounds) on the outside, while under the planks the 26-year-old American winger/pivot Ronald Jackson (9 points, 5.4 rebounds) is paired with the 30-year-old center Simone Zanotti (13 points, 5.5 rebounds), arrived in Turin for the playoffs after finishing the season in Serie A with Napoli. The “sixth man” of Reale Mutua is the 30-year-old guard Simone Pepe (13 points, 1.8 assists), ex from Treviglio like the 25-year-old Aimed at Taflaj (3.6 points), who rotate on the outside with the 22-year-old play / guard Matteo Schina (7.2 points, 2.9 assists) and with the 23-year-old forward Federico Poser (9.9 points, 4.3 rebounds), while the 25-year-old Thomas Guariglia (14.6 points, 5.6 rebounds) is the big change.
The Piedmontese company, just on the eve of the start of the series against Gruppo Mascio, announced that coach Ciani will have the entire roster at its disposal: in fact, by paying the “luxury tax”, Reale Mutua will not be forced to keep a of his seniors after the addition of Zanotti for the post season.

The prayer in the Treviglio house

To introduce the series between Treviglio and Turin in the traditional pre-match of the National Basketball League is the white and blue coach Alessandro Finelli.

We can’t wait to start this semi-final in front of our fans: we are ready, humble, prepared and determined. Torino played a great regular season, a semi-final of the Coppa Italia and is the only team that, in the regular season, beat us on both occasions. This aspect gives us great motivation: the two league games have certainly taught us many things that we will treasure. Our opponents have great physicality and athleticism in every role and, to be even more profound, the pivotal winger Zanotti has signed up from Serie A, who has already been training with the team for a month and a half. Impacting their physicality and their athleticism, working well on defense, winning the battle on the rebound, will be the fundamental prerequisite for starting off on the right foot.

Among the ranks of the Mascio Group there is a player who has a long experience of these phases of the season, thanks to three promotions conquered from A2 to Serie A. He is the pivot Davide Bruttini.

The semi-final series begins and we have great desire, great enthusiasm and great concentration. Let’s face Turin, which beat us twice in the league: it’s a team that plays very well, has great training, which has grown a lot and, with the addition of Zanotti, even more profound. It will be a very complicated series: we will have to stay very focused on the details and try not to approach the series as we did with Rimini, and then play it head-on.

Statistics and curiosities

There are 8 precedents between Blu Basket 1971 Treviglio and Basket Torino, who have met for four years as opponents in the same Serie A2 group. Thanks to the two successes in the regular season, the gialloblù have reduced the gap in the confrontation with the biancoblu, which at the moment is in favor of the Treviso players: 5-3. At Gruppo Mascio the former is Jason Clarkin Turin in the 2020/21 season (49 appearances with 721 points), while among the Piedmontese they wore the white and blue Simone Pepe (2020/21), Simon Doneda (2019/20) e Aimed at Taflaj (2018/2019).