Fioretti: "This victory is dedicated to our fans. We wanted to finish the regular season strong for them at home."
Mario Fioretti was satisfied with his team's performance as a whole when he spoke at the press conference following Bertram Derthona Tortona's 88-80 home win over second-place Germani Brescia at the Nova Arena on the twenty-ninth and penultimate matchday of the Serie A Unipol regular season. The win allows the Bianconeri to keep alive their hopes of defending their current fifth-place finish against Reggio Emilia, with forty minutes remaining.
"We played a really solid game despite the problematic situation with so many fouls early on. No one held back," the Tortona coach began. "We managed to limit their strengths for almost the entire game, and in the second half, we were even more successful in moving the ball, making very few mistakes and turnovers. All the players showed commitment; everyone who stepped onto the court gave something after, I repeat, all those fouls had honestly put us in trouble at the beginning."
"We're really happy. It was our last home game of the regular season. We talked to the team this week about finishing with a win, also for our fans, who have been pushing us all year and deserved this satisfaction. Now we have another exciting battle ahead of us in Venice."
Derthona has added two points to its standings after a difficult final period, but only in terms of results, Fioretti emphasizes: "We've been reacting to difficulties all year. We started the season without Arturs [Strautins], we were without our point guard [Manjon] for three and a half months, and at one point we were both missing at the same time. Except for the game in Reggio Emilia, I can't remember another in which we didn't give it our all to play on equal terms with everyone. Even in the final period, we lost at home against the Italian champions after missing the equalizer, and the same thing happened in Treviso. Sometimes things go your way and we've managed to win a lot at the last minute, other times things haven't gone our way due to a few incidents. Tonight, we were really eager to play a good game, and the boys did a great job of gritting their teeth and taking home the win."
