Derthona for history: with Würzburg at stake the Champions League quarter-finals. The words of Squarcina
Playoff. Final. In or out. There are many ways to describe tomorrow's challenge between Bertram Derthona Tortona and FIT/One Würzburg for the sixth and final day of Group I of the Champions League Top 16. Scheduled for tomorrow at 18:30 p.m. at the PalaEnergica Paolo Ferraris in Casale Monferrato, the game will be experienced with the same thrilling state of mind by Derthona and the Germans: whoever wins advances to the quarterfinals, whoever loses ends their seasonal adventure in the main European club competition of FIBA here. Despite Walter De Raffaele's team's current two-point advantage in the standings, 6 against 4, the Bavarians would overtake them with a win in the direct clash in their favor in light of the +1 from the first leg, while the victory of Bertram - very much on the rise with its 7 consecutive victories between the league and the cup - would guarantee them the precious second final place, with the first already conquered a week ago by AEK Athens, who will therefore have the advantage of the home field advantage belonging to the four winners of the Top 16 groups in the quarterfinal series that qualify for the Final Four for the 2024/25 title.
THE OPPONENT The 80-79 of the first leg, in the opening game of the group on January 28, Würzburg obtained it in a dramatic way by coming back from -4 with 21” to go, with the decisive overtaking signed with just 4” left by two free throws by Jhivvan Jackson, not only the star of that game with 34 points but also of the fresh victory last Sunday in the championship at home of a Euroleague team like Alba Berlin, beaten 94-90 with 39 points by the Puerto Rican-Panamanian point guard. Jackson is the top scorer of the entire Bundesliga with 19.8 points per game (and the 6th in the Champions League with very similar figures, 19.7) and to his danger the team coached by Sasha Filipovski will be able to add, compared to the absence in the first leg due to injury, its emotional leader and not only, the American small forward Zac Seljaas. The recent success in the German capital has interrupted a streak of three defeats in the championship, where Würzburg occupies the ninth place that would be worth the play-in with a record of just over 50% (12-11), as well as three defeats in a row in the Champions League, two with AEK and the last one at home with Patras after two extra times (115-119) that made it completely irrelevant to make calculations on the +1 of the first leg with Tortona. Würzburg will be followed by about sixty fans for what is a challenge never experienced before even for the club where Dirk Nowitzki grew up.
NURSERY Christian Vital remains doubtful due to the chest contusion suffered last week against AEK, an injury that forced him to miss the league match against Pistoia three days ago. A decision will be made on the eve of the match regarding the use of the American guard.
YOUTH SECTOR CELEBRATING The huge anticipation for a match that could write another page in the history of Derthona Basket is also demonstrated by the massive presence in the stands of the club's youth and mini-basketball sector. Six buses to take over 250 young Lions to Casale Monferrato who, in addition to supporting their "big brothers" to enter the top eight of the BCL, will take to the parquet during the break for a presentation parade.
WHERE TO SEE IT ON TV The race will be broadcast live on DAZN.
STATEMENTS “It's an exciting eve, the players and the staff live for games like this, basketball is this stuff here”, says the assistant coach Iacopo Squarcina. "To this we must also add the poisonous note of having lost in the first leg in that way, we must find extra motivation from this too. It is a challenge that should not be faced with hero-mode, that is with everyone wanting to become the protagonist, but with team-mode, that is having a team that wants to tighten the belts in defense and make an extra pass in attack to always find an open man. We find an opponent that has a lot of talent in attack, with Jhivvan Jackson and Zac Seljaas who are two great scorers. Compared to the first leg, they have not added, in the sense that he returned from injury, only Seljaas, but they have also brought in Davion Mintz who took the place of Tyrese Williams. They have important ballistic skills, they are well organized and trained, they will have to be defused in their strong points. One of these is physicality, the ability to impact under the backboards of their big men, given that Klassen and Steinbach did us a lot of harm between offensive rebounds and balls get dirty. Therefore we will have to be very good at playing a game of great attention on defense with the whole quintet, helping each other on the rebound and then in the one-on-ones of Jackson and Seljaas, also imposing a pace that is more congenial to us".
