Bertram closes the Trapani tournament in third place: Japanese Ryukyu Golden Kings defeated
Bertram Derthona – Ryukyu Golden Kings 80-71
(21-15, 40-33, 61-50)
Scoreboards:
Bertram: Zerini 2, Kuhse 13, Gorham 16, Candi 2, Denegri 7, Strautins 18, Baldasso 2, Kamagate 9, Biligha 2, Severini, Josovic ne, Weems 9. Coach De Raffaele.
Ryukyu: Ito, Law ne, Uematsu 1, Arakawa 3, Aluma 8, Kishimoto 11, Matsuwaki 8, Waki 5, Onodera 5, Cooley 16, Kirk 14. All. Oketar.
Referees: Man. Attard, Galasso, Patti.
Bertram Derthona beats the Japanese Ryukyu Golden Kings to close the Preseason Tournament in Trapani in third place. Forced to the consolation final after surrendering only in overtime in yesterday's semifinal against Partizan Belgrade (94-96), the black and white team took home the match at the PalaShark against the Asian team, beaten the day before by the hosts Trapani Shark (80-71) by 69-78.
Still without Vital, still out with a shoulder problem, Walter De Raffaele's team managed the game and the score with solidity after being launched at the beginning by the immediately hot hands of Strautins, top scorer of the challenge with his 18 points. On the other side, the team from the city of Okinawa remained attached above all to its powerful pair of big men formed by Cooley and Kirk, both seen in the past also in the Italian championship, but Bertram's rotations kept the quality of the game constant, which reached its peak on the electronic scoreboard with the 56-44 of the 27th minute built on the wake of Gorham's excellent start to the second half. After the 0-6 suffered at the hands of the Japanese at the beginning of the last quarter, Bertram put things right with Kuhse who definitively closed the contest with an illuminating assist for Strautins' triple of 77-67 with less than a minute and a half on the clock.
Bertram will return to the field next weekend with the “Trofeo Carlo Lovari” in Lucca, where on Saturday at 21 pm at the PalaTagliate they will face Estra Pistoia in the semifinals in the tournament that will also see the presence of Umana Reyer Venezia and Napoli Basket.
STATEMENTS "It was a very profitable two days for us, with two diametrically opposed matches in terms of the content they proposed, given the enormous physicality of Partizan and the smaller size of the Japanese”, the coach's analysis Walter De Raffaele. “Today, frankly, the goal was also to avoid risking injuries. Yesterday's match was very energy-intensive and the goal was to have a wide rotation with players who had been used less the day before and we responded with a good match. Now – continues the Juventus coach – we will have two good tournaments in Lucca and Lecco and the last week will be a preparation for the championship, trying to recover Vital because he is a player who clearly needs to fit in. We will take other ideas from these tournaments knowing full well that the pre-season are simply games in which you try to make only small steps, improvements and, in particular in our case, those who have not been with me before, the needs and mutual knowledge”.
