Derthona's dream fades in game 2 of the quarter-finals: Tenerife flies to its umpteenth Champions League Final Four
Bertram Derthona Tortona – La Laguna Tenerife 64-77
(19-24, 38-35, 54-59)
Tortona: Zerini, Vital 6, Kuhse 7, Gorham 3, Candi 2, Denegri 7, Baldasso 10, Kamagate 4, Biligha 9, Severini 9, Josovic ne, Weems 7. All. De Raffaele.
Tenerife: Kramer 5, Kostadinov 2, Fernandez 5, Drell ne, Huertas 16, Scrubb 2, Costa 2, Sastre 4, Badji 4, Shermadini 23, Abromaitis 5, Doornekamp 9. Coach Vidorreta.
Referees: Zurapovic (BIH), Kozlovskis (LAT), Galins (LAT).
viewers: 2073.
Bertram Derthona Tortona's adventure in the Basketball Champions League 2/2024 ends in Game 25 of the quarterfinals. At the PalaEnergica Paolo Ferraris in Casale Monferrato, the Spanish team from La Laguna Tenerife imposed all the rights of their class and placed the decisive 2-0 point in the series with a 77-64 victory. The home team, despite having a convincing first half, were unable to replicate the super performance of a week ago in Tenerife to score the 1-1 point and bring the series back to the Canary Island for the "bella". The dominator of the BCL season, and vice-leader of the Spanish championship, came out forcefully in the second half to score the fourteenth success in as many cup matches and fly to its umpteenth Final Four in the competition. On the other hand, Derthona's dream of making their European season even more magical ends here, a dream that was cherished for long stretches in game 1 with the victory slipping away in the final seconds of both regulation time and overtime and finally shelved in the second twenty minutes of game 2, where some of the characteristics of the Canaries came to the fore, the talent of the duo of great veterans Marcelinho Huertas (16+13 assists) and Giorgi Shermadini (23+9 rebounds), the defense and the explosion, precisely in the second half, of the offensive rebounding dominance, 19-9 the total score at the end of the game for a 44-30 overall rebound score that gradually took away the spirits of the home team.
In the first half and for a good part of the third quarter, however, Bertram had once again managed to play on equal terms with their opponents, who were forced, once they had closed the first quarter ahead (19-24), to chase for a good part of the second period after one of Baldasso's classic outbursts, 8 points in a row for the 36-30 that had allowed them to close the long interval ahead, 38-35.
At the start of the second half, a triple by Weems and a free throw by Vital on a technical foul given to coach Vidorreta brought Tortona's maximum lead to +7, 42-35, but the Iberians quickly got back on track, with Huertas and Shermadini and the many offensive rebounds sealing the new lead for the visitors with less than five minutes to go in the third period, 46-47. Severini rekindled the home crowd with a triple from far away at the end of the 24" for the immediate counter-overtaking of Tortona, but it lasted only a moment, Tenerife placed a 10-2 with the first rings of Jaime Fernandez. It was again the Juventus power forward who scored from the longest distance and closed the gap before Kramer on the buzzer scored the basket for 54-59 with which they presented themselves to the final sprint. The last period transformed into a monologue of the yellow and blacks, the 12-1 of the first five minutes meant a 71-55 that made the rest of the game a wait towards the end. At the end of the game, PalaEnergica stood up to applaud with conviction the farewell of their team from a BCL in which they achieved historic goals for the club.
STATEMENTS In the post-match press conference they introduced themselves Luke Severini and coach Walter De Raffaele. "We played a pretty good game, especially in the first half, in the second we left them too many offensive rebounds and, combined with the fact that they are a great team, they were able to take home the victory.”, the comment of thebig wing. “I am proud of my team for the path taken this season in BCL: we have taken two steps forward compared to last year, we have brought the name of Derthona around Europe with our heads held high”Says Coach De Raffaele. "Above all, we must understand that we fought against a strong team, which for the umpteenth time will go to play for the victory in the competition. Congratulations therefore to Tenerife, they have shown what it means to be a complete team, full of experience and talent. But once again we have shown that we can fight against everyone, as happened throughout the season".
