Bertram hosts AEK Athens while waiting for the “play-off” with Wurzburg: the sprint for the Champions League quarter-finals begins. Squarcina's words
A challenge to win to still have a hope of finishing in first place in the group. Knowing, however, that the decisive match for qualification to the next phase will be next Wednesday. It is an ambivalent approach with which Bertram Derthona Tortona is experiencing tomorrow's home challenge against AEK Betsson Athens, scheduled for 20:30 at the PalaEnergica Paolo Ferraris in Casale Monferrato for the fifth and penultimate day of Group I of the Basketball Champions League. A victory for the team coached by Walter De Raffaele overturning the -7 of the first leg in Greece would give them another chance to overtake the undefeated leader AEK, already qualified, in the very last round of these Top 16, provided that there is also the fruitful collaboration next week of Promitheas Patras, bottom of the group that will host the Athenians. But, in any case, to get the pass to the quarter-finals, even tomorrow's possible success against AEK will not save Derthona from having to win at all costs the new internal challenge with FIT/One Würzburg on Wednesday 26 March (18:30), a real play-off from which the second and last qualified team will emerge.
AEK Dragan Sakota's team will be supported by around 300 fans who will invade the stands behind the visitors' bench in yellow and black. They will face two teams in top form, because if Bertram comes from 5 consecutive victories between Serie A and Champions League, for their part the Greeks are experiencing an even more profitable period. Since the hard-fought 93-86 victory against Bertram on February 4, an advantage produced entirely in the last two minutes with a super Prentiss Hubb (30 points for the former Trento point guard), AEK has strung together 6 wins (for an open streak of 9), four in the league to strengthen its third place in the standings behind the unstoppable Panathinaikos-Olympiacos duo (13-8 the record) and the double in the Champions League against Würzburg (77-71 in Germany and 84-77 in Greece) which gave it an early ticket to the quarterfinals and the current two match points to win the group and secure the advantage of the home field advantage in the best-of-three series that will book the trip to the Final Four.
WHERE TO SEE IT ON TV The race will be broadcast live on DAZN.
STATEMENTS "The next two games are crucial, but clearly the one with Würzburg is marked with a "little red circle" around it. First, however, we have to face AEK and we have to face them aggressively.”, says the assistant coach Iacopo Squarcina. "We find a healthy team, which has balance and experience. In the first leg we had an up & down game, we had suffered at times their physicality on the rebound and we were a bit slow in managing fouls in some situations. We will have to be better in this last aspect and in the way of contrasting physicality with those who are their strong points, namely DeQuan Gray (data in doubt on the eve, ed.) and their full-backs. Both with Würzburg and AEK, the ones who hurt us were their full-backs, Jackson for Würzburg and Hubb and Hale for AEK, so we will have to be good at not letting them get going and instead put more bodies on them, limiting their scoring potential. Qualifying for the quarter-finals? Obviously it is our goal and we must believe in it, we want to be able to continue the current positive moment. To do so we will need even more support from our fans, I know it is not easy, it is a great effort to go to Casale Monferrato every time, but we really need everyone. It is time to unite to create a mentality in the territory that can support not only this year but also in the years to come. This is teamwork, it is always said that you have to be a team to win matches and, well, being a team also means being a team outside of those who are the workers of the company. The team also includes the public, the fans, everything that can give us a hand in compacting a growing reality like that of Derthona”.
CAMP ON A CRUISE On the occasion of the match against AEK, the stand dedicated to the cruise camp that Derthona Basket organizes in collaboration with Costa Crociere will return to PalaEnergica. At the desk located next to the Curva Sud it will be possible to obtain all the information on the summer camp that for this third edition will see the Costa Pacifica ship take participants around the Mediterranean to train and visit Toulon, Valencia, Palma de Mallorca, Olbia and Anguillara Sabazia (in the Civitavecchia stop), departing from Savona on July 5 and returning to the Ligurian city on July 12.
