Fresh from last Sunday’s overtime success on the pitch of the unsafe Juvi Cremona, it is already time for Gesteco to turn the page with the aim of starting, as per consolidated tradition, the new year on the right foot which in 2026 also coincides with the first day of the second half of the season. Having closed the first half of the tournament in fifth place in the standings and just two points behind the quartet at the top of the ranking, in fact, on Saturday 3 January starting at 8.00pm Gemini Mestre is arriving in Cividale for an eagerly awaited Triveneto derby which predicts the atmosphere of great occasions in Via Perusini and an important influx of visiting fans too. The PalaGesteco will also be able to celebrate Leonardo Marangon by hosting his 100 appearances in Serie A2, all in the yellow and blue jersey, a significant achievement for a class of 2005 and a source of pride for the club, which makes the growth of young talents one of its main objectives.
The Venetians, currently in thirteenth place with a score of 9 victories and 9 defeats, are to be considered “the terrible rookie” of the tournament, a very insidious opponent who appears on the banks of the Natisone with an open series of 3 consecutive victories, successes achieved against teams of the caliber of Verona and Turin (at Taliercio) and Livorno (on the very hot Labronico pitch). Gemini will also be driven by the desire to “avenge” the defeat suffered in the first leg on their home turf, when it was the returning Deshawn Freeman who overturned the outcome of the match in the final stages for 78-79 with which the yellow-blues prevailed at the sound of the last siren. Compared to last October’s match, coach Mattia Ferrari will have at his disposal the talent and triples of Wayne Stewart Jr. and the energy of Alessandro Scarponi, who recently arrived in the lagoon from Sella Cento, all qualities that will be added to the plays of one of the best foreigners in the league, Keshawn Curry, whose dangerousness the yellow-blue supporters have had the opportunity to discover since the Bortoluzzi Memorial in Lignano in the pre-season and who currently travels with a score of 16.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game and 36% shooting from beyond the arc.
This is how he expressed himself Stefano Pillastrini on the eve of the match which will be refereed by Luca Attard from Priolo Gargallo (SR), Stefano Wassermann from Trieste and Fulvio Grappasonno from Lanciano (CH): “We start the year by playing against Mestre which is the team of the moment, one of the teams now in best form together with Rimini and is in a moment of exaltation and is playing very well: there is no team in this championship that plays so well. A clear demonstration that teams are not made with budgets, but by doing the right choices and putting the players in the right place. In this regard, it seems to me that the trio of big men they have, such as Aromando, Stewart and Galmarini, are probably the best in the championship in terms of performance. No one would have ever said it and therefore, also for this reason, they are truly dangerous and we will have to play a great game; moreover they are proving to be an away team, as they demonstrated recently by winning in Livorno, but even when they failed to win, for example in Brindisi and Pesaro, they were very competitive. Mestre is truly a very treacherous team and we will have to play an excellent match, playing better than we did in Cremona, where we managed to win even without playing a great match; this made me really happy but this time, playing like this, it won’t be enough and therefore we have to play much better if we want to get a result”.
On the same wavelength as the coach, Luca Cesana: “On Saturday we play against a team that is certainly in form, coming off three important consecutive victories and now, after having played for a long time without him, in Stewart they have an American who, as soon as he returned, immediately put in notable performances; Mestre is also a very well-trained team and therefore is a team that, as newly promoted teams, has a great desire to amaze and has nothing to envy of the top clubs in the League: therefore another battle awaits us. On Sunday we managed to win in the final part of a match that had been very close complicated in Cremona and we certainly want to give continuity of result, but above all give continuity of performance: if in the last match Juvi were good at putting us in difficulty, this time we must be the ones to immediately put Mestre in difficulty and take the two points again”.
The match will be visible in live streaming on LNP Pass and deferred at 10pm on Telefriuli, channel 11 of digital terrestrial. You will be able to follow the progress of the match on the official social channels of UEB Cividale.
