Bertram still travels towards Emilia: tomorrow advance of the seventh round against UNAHOTELS Reggio Emilia. The words of coach De Raffaele
Just enough time to file away the fourth day that for the Bertram Derthona the seventh round must be inaugurated immediately. The black and white team, fresh from Wednesday evening's recovery on the parquet of the league leaders Virtus Segafredo Bologna, is awaited by another immediate away match in Emilia to face the UNAHOTELS Reggio Emilia in advance of tomorrow at 20pm at PalaBigi, which kicks off the new day of Serie A Unipol.
SIMILARITIES “Derby” between the only two Italian teams participating in this season’s Champions League and united by the defeats in the sprint in the last game, the 73-70 suffered by the Reggio Emilia team at home to Pistoia and the 85-81 Bologna team by the Piedmont team, even if there is still more than half of the round to go at the end of the first leg, it is a direct clash in view of qualification for the Final Eight of the Italian Cup for the two teams. Dividing them in the standings are the two points in favor of the quintet coached by Walter De Raffaele, fourth with 8 points, two more than the seventh place straddling the playoff zone occupied by the Emilians together with Venezia and Pistoia.
GREAT EXES At Derthona it will be a special challenge for Leonardo Candi and Arturs Strautins, both with five championships behind them with the red and white jersey. For Candi consecutively from 2017 to 2022, while for the Latvian, the man of the moment at the black and white house, in two different brackets (2014-2017 and 2021-23), he who began his Italian adventure in the Reggio youth team to now become not only the best scorer in the Bertram championship with his 13.8 points on average in less than 24' per game but among the best players in the entire Serie A, as also demonstrated by the recent MVP award of the sixth day.
FROM RAFFAELE FA 350 The challenge at the PalaBigi will see the Bertram coach reach an important milestone, as he is on the bench for 350 years in the top league between the regular season and playoffs, with a list of 2 championships (plus 1 Italian Cup) limited to Serie A.
FAVORABLE TRADITION Derthona have won all three of their away matches in Serie A against Reggio Emilia, with an overall score of 5-1.
WHERE TO SEE IT ON TV The race will be broadcast live on DAZN.
STATEMENTS “There was a need to optimize the time to best face the race, we only do real training the day before, so it's not like there can be a lot of preparatory work", says coach De Raffaele. "Reggio is a team with a lot of talent on the outside, with great ability to create, also with experience with Jamar Smith. It is a team that puts a lot of physicality and a lot of aggression especially in defense, so the movement of the ball will be fundamental but once again the idea of knowing the characteristics of the opposing players".
