Having left behind last Sunday’s winning sprint against Bergamo, Gesteco tonight recovered the first of the two rounds in arrears for the national window at the end of November, the one against Wegreenit Urania Milano of former APU Andrea Amato and Alessandro Gentile, who arrived in via Perusini hungry for points to get back up in the rankings, after the poor start which relegated them to a position that does not measure the real competitiveness of the team Milanese.
The yellow-blue team’s desire to continue their climb towards the top four positions which will “give” qualification to the Italian Cup finals at the end of the month therefore clashed with the strong motivations of an opponent to score points who, after having changed their structure with cuts and new additions, seem to have found the right balance to move back up, a circumstance supported by the two consecutive victories with which they appeared in Cividale.
Pillastrini’s boys achieved their sixth consecutive victory (eighth in the last 9) with an authoritative performance, leading the match from start to finish, thanks to the contribution of the collective who benefited from Francesco Ferrari’s over the top performance (36 points and 39 rating) and another convincing day from Matteo Berti.
Pillastrini sends Rota, Marangon, Mastellari, Francesco Ferrari and Freeman onto the field while his colleague Cardani opts for Amato, Cavallero, Taylor, Gentile and D’Almeida for a start with wet powders and the scoreboard saying 2-2 at 7’39” and Cividale who, suffering the guest defense, is unable to capitalize on the good work done in turn in containing the opponents. In this phase it is Francesco Ferrari who takes charge of dragging his team forward and with two triples, together with a three-point play by Mastellari, created the first mini-break, bringing the score to 13-6 4’24” from the first stop. Pillastrini inserts Redivo and Cesana for Rota and Mastellari and after failing to gain possession of the possible +10, Cividale sees the guests come back at 13-12 with 2’17” left but then react promptly by taking measures in attack, with time finally ending at 21-12 and the +11 basket, canceled out to Cesana because it was shot just before the siren in the last possession after an assist from Redivo.
The start of the second half marks a yellow-blue empty pass, with an unusually imprecise Freeman under the Milanese basket, and so Urania gets back to within 7’11 (21-18) after a dunk by Morgillo in the heart of the ducal area; the match goes away with several turnovers which prevent Cividale from extending and taking advantage of the good defense, until a triple by Francesco Ferrari on the edge of 24 seconds brings Gesteco to +10 (32-22) at 3’45”, with coach Cardani, punished in the previous action with a technical, forced to call a minute’s suspension. Upon returning it is the yellow-blue number 24 who extends again (34-22) nailing a delightful undersized no look assist from Freeman, but then the guests manage to mend the score at 37-29 heading into the break, relying on the individual initiatives of Taylor who has so far accounted for almost half of Urania’s overall haul.
Among the yellow-blues, who were unable to give greater concreteness to their rebounding supremacy (20-13) and who suffered an unusual 2/8 of Freeman in the paint, the performance of Francesco Ferrari was notable, as he scored 16 points at half-time, with 6/7 from the field (100% from the arc), 1 steal and 4 rebounds for a rating of 19.
We start again under the banner of Taylor who is becoming an unsolved puzzle for the hosts, who with 4 points in a row brings Milan closer to 37-33 with 7’53” left, while Cividale is unable to be continuous forward and Pillastrini has to recall Marangon to the bench after his third foul. A triple by Amato in transition gives the score – 2 (38-36) in a decidedly positive start to the half for the guests, while Cividale struggles to find effective solutions forward. In this phase Matteo Berti’s recoveries become important in the Milanese paint, first pushing Urania back to -6 with 3’56” (44-38) and then allowing Francesco Ferrari to score the score 46-38, a circumstance which leads Cardani to call the minute to stop the 6-0 run with 3’30” from the penultimate siren Francesco Ferrari on top and then finished ahead 56-45, thanks also to Matteo Berti’s determined work under the boards on both sides of the pitch.
Three free throws from Marangon at the start of the last quarter give the yellow-blues the maximum advantage (59-45), who then manage the clock and when Cardani, following a short basket from Berti, calls the minute again 6’57” from the last siren the scoreboard still says +14 (63-49). Berti on an assist from Redivo gives the +16 (65-49) at 5’50” and channels the game definitely towards the sixth victory in a row for the ducals which, with a triple by Francesco Ferrari for his point number 30 and the +16 on the scoreboard (72-56) at 3’20”, takes on the characteristics of a sentence. It ends 78-65 with Pillastrini who allows the exit at 1’12” among the applause of Francesco Ferrari for Brizzi and then also gives a chance to the baby Pajovic with the palace in celebration.
UEB Gesteco Cividale – Wegreenit Urania Milan 78-65 (21-12, 16-17, 19-16, 22-20)
UEB Gesteco Civilale: Francesco Ferrari 36 (9/12, 5/5), Martino Mastellari 14 (5/8, 1/3), Leonardo Marangon 10 (0/4, 2/3), Matteo Berti 8 (2/2, 0/0), Deshawn Freeman 4 (2/9, 0/0), Eugenio Rota 3 (0/0, 0/2), Lucio Redivo 2 (1/3, 0/3), Luca Cesana 1 (0/1, 0/3), Alessandro Ferrari 0 (0/1, 0/0), Giacomo Brizzi 0 (0/0, 0/0), Filip Pejovic 0 (0/0, 0/0), Alessandro Amici 0 (0/0, 0/0)
Free throws: 16 / 20 – Rebounds: 33 10 + 23 (Deshawn Freeman 8) – Assists: 15 (Lucio Redivo 5)
Wegreenit Urania Milano: Kevion Taylor 23 (6/11, 2/3), Roko Rogic 9 (2/3, 1/2), Andrea Amato 8 (1/1, 2/6), Alessandro Gentile 8 (4/10, 0/0), Matteo Cavallero 6 (1/3, 0/2), Ursulo D’almeida 4 (2/6, 0/2), Alessandro Morgillo 4 (2/3, 0/0), Gherardo Sabatini 3 (1/1, 0/3), Morgan Rashed 0 (0/0, 0/0), Stefano Bracale 0 (0/0, 0/0)
Free throws: 12 / 15 – Rebounds: 29 9 + 20 (Kevion Taylor 6) – Assists: 10 (Matteo Cavallero 3)
Referees: Costa, Ferretti, Fiore
Attendance 2,364
Credits: Mattia D’Antoni
