Acqua S.Bernardo Cantù immediately returns to victory, beating Avellino at the PalaFitLine. The blue and white thus remain in the team group in second place in the standings. Coach Nicola Brienza’s comments in the press conference after Acqua S.Bernardo Cantù’s victory over Avellino. “Let’s start with the positive things: we won a match and no one got hurt. I’m clearly happy to have brought home the two points, but I’m quite angry because we can’t switch off like in the third quarter. It’s at least the third time it’s happened to us and it’s clearly not good, we need to be better, more attentive and more concentrated for the whole 40 minutes. We cannot have these ups and downs and allow our opponents, who rightly fight until the last second, to reopen a match. In the first minutes we must have a decidedly different mental approach. It’s not something that worries me, because I have great confidence in my players and I know that from the next game we will definitely have an approach in the third quarter. In addition to us, great credit must be given to Avellino and in particular to Mussini, who made some very high quality baskets in that third quarter. It wasn’t just our shortcomings, because they were very good at attacking us in some tactical situations. Then in the last quarter we recreated the right safety gap which led us to close the game. Now we can rest and then we will mentally focus on Sunday’s match, in Vigevano on a very hot pitch, with them coming off a bad defeat and therefore we will have to face the match in top form.”
THE MATCH
The news (Source Cantù Basketball Press Office) – Avellino and Mussini start decisively with an initial break of 7-0, then Basile unlocks Cantù. After the sparkling start, the percentages of guests drop and Acqua S.Bernardo returns to contact with Moraschini. In the final minute Valentini scores the equalizing triple, Cantù defends strongly and Moraschini manages to burn the siren with the triple for Cantù’s first lead at 18-15.
Acqua S.Bernardo immediately puts two possessions between themselves and Avellino. The guests try to react by relying again on Mussini, but Cantù increases the defensive intensity and Valentini scores the +10 basket. The end of the quarter still smiles on the blue and whites, who thanks to Basile’s basket go into the break ahead 41-29.
Avellino also started the second half better and came back to just one possession away. Piccoli tries to stop the comeback, but the guests manage to regain the lead. Mussini is irrepressible and Avellino even reaches +6. The quarter changes face with the entry of an overflowing Burns, the American big man scores 8 consecutive points in the last minutes and puts Cantù back in command 55-53.
Burn continues its positive momentum, but Avellino remains in its wake. Burns again scores the triple which allows Acqua S.Bernardo to gain two full possessions away. The lead goes back beyond double figures with a three-point play by Riismaa and the winning counterattack by De Nicolao. The blue and whites no longer allow Avellino to return, it ends 83-71.
THE SCORESHEET
Acqua S.Bernardo Cantù – Avellino Basket 83-71 (18-15, 23-14, 14-24, 28-18)
Acqua S.Bernardo Cantù: Christian Burns 22 (7/8, 2/2), Grant Basile 18 (5/10, 1/4), Fabio Valentini 17 (5/7, 1/3), Riccardo Moraschini 9 (1 /6, 2/5), Filippo Baldi rossi 7 (0/1, 2/3), Andrea De nicolao 5 (1/1, 1/4), Joonas Riismaa 3 (1/2, 0/2), Matteo Piccoli 2 (1/1, 0/3), Luca Possamai 0 (0/2, 0/0), Andrea Beltrami 0 (0/0, 0/0), Matteo Viganò 0 (0/0, 0/0)
Free throws: 14 / 18 – Rebounds: 31 7 + 24 (Christian Burns 7) – Assists: 19 (Andrea De Nicolao 6)
Avellino Basket: Federico Mussini 23 (8/12, 2/5), Jaren Lewis 17 (7/10, 1/2), Marcellus Earlington 10 (4/11, 0/2), Matias Bortolin 8 (4/7, 0/0), Antonino Sabatino 7 (3/4, 0/2), Mikk Jurkatamm 4 (0/2, 1/5), Aleksa Nikolic 2 (1/2, 0/0), Riccardo Chinellato 0 (0/ 2, 0/1), Lucas Maglietti 0 (0/0, 0/0), Armando Verazzo 0 (0/0, 0/0)
Free throws: 5 / 8 – Rebounds: 31 6 + 25 (Marcellus Earlington 9) – Assists: 15 (Federico Mussini, Mikk Jurkatamm 4)
