Thrilling final in Cremona: two free throws from Macura give Bertram success
Vanoli Cremona-Bertram Derthona 73-74
(17-15, 38-34, 54-53)
Scoreboards:
Cremona: Agbamu ne, Dime 10, McNeace 13, Gallo, Poeta ne, Spagnolo 19, Errica ne, Kohs 3, Tinkle 10, Zacchigna ne, Cournooh 14, Juskevicius 4. Coach Galbiati
Derthona: Mortellaro ne, Wright 11, Cannon 5, Pezzulla ne, Tavernelli ne, Filloy 16, Mascolo 6, Severini 3, Sanders 5, Daum 11, Cain 9, Macura 8. Coach Ramondino
Difficult, painful, desired. These are the three adjectives to describe Bertram Derthona's victory on the Vanoli Cremona pitch. Difficult and painful because the opponents led for good stretches, desired because the Lions always reacted to all the breaks from the team coached by Paolo Galbiati. After a long run-up, overtaking and counter-overtaking, Macura's coolness on the line was decisive in obtaining two important points.
First quarter balanced in rhythm and score at the PalaRadi between two teams looking to play a lot inside the area: Cremona leads the match, 17-15. In the second half, Derthona manages to overtake and extend the lead to 20-24, before suffering a counter break from Vanoli, who is ahead 38-34 at half-time.
In the third quarter the game continues with the same leitmotiv of the first half, with Vanoli leading in the score. Bertram then, possession after possession, overtakes with a triple from Filloy, before Kohs' response - which closes the period - which makes it 54-53 at home in the 30th minute. At the beginning of the last period, Derthona attempted an attack led by 7 straight points again from Filloy, but Cremona remained in contact thanks to Spagnolo's play: thus we entered the last five minutes with the Lions ahead 63-67. Spagnolo once again puts the home team ahead (71-70) in the 37th minute, Wright and Dime keep their distance unchanged. We get to the last possessions: Tinkle and Spagnolo make mistakes, Macura is fouled and puts Derthona back ahead (73-74) with 9 seconds left. Juskevicius misses the winning shot, it ends 73-74.
Thus coach Marco Ramondino at the end of the race: “It's a match we're very happy with at a time when we're not so brilliant. We are at the end of the regular season, a bit of tiredness sets in which doesn't make the way we play easier. From a qualitative point of view, what took away our rhythm were the free and unforced turnovers, opening up their counterattack. Defensively we did an excellent job on pick'n'rolls, one of Cremona's strengths in generating alley-oops and outside shots. We did well to put Filloy in rhythm in the last quarter and score the free throws in the final minutes.".
