In anticipation of the second day of return, Gesteco was called in front of the RAI Sport cameras to change skin after the departure of Francesco Ferrari, facing the fearsome RSR Sebastiani Rieti in its lair of the PalaSojourner. The final result and the progress of the match showed a dazed team, too bad to be true and which suffered one of the heaviest defeats in its history with too many important players “out of phase” in the presence of an opponent who instead, after having stuttered in the initial stages, went into “fourth gear” with great energy and confidently completed the match without encountering any difficulties.
At the start Pillastrini chooses a quintet made up of Redivo, Marangon, Mastellari, Amici and Freeman while Coach Ciani responds with Palumbo, Perry, Udom, Hogue and Guariglia with the Ducal coach who immediately has to shuffle the cards because Amici is forced to withdraw due to a blow to his knee; his boys seem to respond well, going quickly to +8 (2-10), before suffering Rieti’s return with triples, with Palumbo and Perry on the shields and the scoreboard reading 13-12 at 3’41” from the first siren, which finally reaches 22-16 in favor of the Lazio team, capable of posting a partial score of 20-8, after a difficult start. In the half, Gesteco pays so far it’s been a bad evening with archery, recording a deficit of 0/6 against the hosts’ 4/7.
The music doesn’t change in the second period and Lazio reach +14 (32-18) after a triple by Parravicini at half time, while Cividale records 0/9 from the arc and the worrying absence of Redivo in the shots with Alessandro Ferrari called to the bench with three fouls; a nice basket in transition by Marangon with the addition of a free throw for the foul immediately gives the yellow-blues some breathing space (33-24) and then Cesana, scoring his team’s first triple, brings Gesteco back to -6 (33-27) 1’14” from the long interval which however reaches 39-27 for the hosts, because after a 0/2 from the line by Freeman Rieti, with Udom from the arc and Perry in penetration at the edge of the siren, Cividale’s hopes are frustrated by the 10 turnovers, the score of 1/10 in triples and the zero in shots by Lucio Redivo, in addition to the short rotations, made even more complicated by the injury suffered at the start.
In the third period Udom scores +15 from the arc at 7’53” and, after Redivo dies with the ball in his hands at the end of the 24″, coach Pillastrini calls a minute for a confrontation with his team; tonight, however, the task is truly unequal because although the ducal defense somehow manages to stem the great energy shown by the Lazio players, the yellow-blues in attack are unable to find winning solutions, with the shooters Mastellari and Redivo still without a goal. The last siren sounds with the scoreboard showing a merciless 63-42 which already smacks of a sentence.
The last half is a long garbage time that ends with the eloquent score of 82-54, where the home team doesn’t let go of the match and Gesteco is too dazed tonight to make a credible attempt to reopen a match that’s already heavily compromised, with truly merciless numbers for some of its protagonists.
RSR Sebastiani Rieti – UEB Gesteco Cividale 82-54 (22-16, 17-11, 24-15, 19-12)
RSR Sebastiani Rieti: Darius Perry 18 (3/7, 3/9), Mattia Palumbo 14 (4/5, 2/2), Liam Udom 11 (2/3, 2/5), Matteo Parravicini 8 (1/4, 2/4), Tommaso Guariglia 7 (0/3, 1/2), Dustin Hogue 7 (3/5, 0/0), Lorenzo Piccin 7 (2/3, 1/3), Giorgio Piunti 5 (0/1, 1/1), Davide Pascolo 4 (2/4, 0/1), Marco tullio Bellini 1 (0/0, 0/1), Cicchetti Mattia 0 (0/0, 0/0), Alessandro Paesano 0 (0/0, 0/0)
Free throws: 12 / 15 – Rebounds: 32 10 + 22 (Darius Perry, Mattia Palumbo, Dustin Hogue 6) – Assists: 21 (Mattia Palumbo 4)
UEB Gesteco Civilale: Leonardo Marangon 17 (4/6, 1/3), Deshawn Freeman 10 (4/11, 0/0), Alessandro Ferrari 9 (3/3, 1/4), Matteo Berti 8 (4/8, 0/0), Luca Cesana 8 (0/3, 2/6), Eugenio Rota 2 (1/2, 0/6), Lucio Redivo 0 (0/0, 0/0), Martino Mastellari 0 (0/3, 0/3), Alessandro Amici 0 (0/0, 0/0), Peter Devetta 0 (0/0, 0/0), Giacomo Brizzi 0 (0/0, 0/0)
Free throws: 10 / 16 – Rebounds: 32 10 + 22 (Deshawn Freeman 7) – Assists: 15 (Leonardo Marangon, Lucio Redivo 3)
Referees: Angelo Caforio from Brindisi, Mattia Eugenio Martellosio from Milan and Andrea Agostino Chersicla from Oggiono (LC)
Credits: RSR Sebastiani Rieti
