Derthona surrenders to Milan in the second half
Bertram Derthona-AX Armani Exchange Milan 64-81
(22-19, 37-40, 51-63)
Scoreboards:
Derthona: Mortellaro ne, Wright 6, Cannon 2, Tavernelli ne, Tambwe ne, Filloy 12, Mascolo, Severini 5, Sanders 15, Daum 5, Cain 4, Macura 15. Coach Ramondino
Milan: Melli 11, Grant 12, Rodriguez 8, Leoni, Ricci 6, Biligha, Hall 5, Baldasso 16, Daniels, Alviti 13, Hines 7, Bentil 3. Coach Messina
Bertram Derthona falls within the friendly walls of PalaEnergica Paolo Ferraris, playing on par for more than a half against AX Armani Exchange Milano before suffering the opponent's initiatives. The team coached by Messina, thanks to extra possessions and offensive clarity, progressively widened their margin, imposing themselves at the siren.
First quarter of great intensity at the PalaEnergica: Derthona finds good collective solutions that allow them to lead the fraction in scoring and close with a 22-19 lead. In the second period, Milan's defense leveled up, giving the team coached by Messina the upper hand. Bertram closes the gap in the final minutes: at halftime the score is 37-40.
Upon returning from the locker rooms, AX Armani Exchange tries to extend the lead, led by Hines' baskets: coach Ramondino interrupts the match at 42-51 in the 24th minute. In the following moments Derthona makes a great effort to come back, but Milan plays with clarity and extends to 51-63 in the 30th minute. In the last half the guests gave the decisive push to the match with triples from Alviti and Rodriguez, widening their gap to 64-81 at the final siren.
Thus coach Marco Ramondino at the end of the race: ʺCongratulations to Milan for yet another excellent match they played against us. The match was quite dominated by them, beyond the time it took them to get to the bottom of it, it was similar to the two previous meetings between us and them. We had to do more and play better, not make some mistakes that we had already made and thought we could remove: we need to go back to the gym to do a better job. I believe that teams like Milan force you to leave something here and there in every possession and in the end they get under your skin: they scored baskets that were easy to avoid, because in some moments they find solutions that are not only talented but which they are good at maintaining as a team for their level. I couldn't quantify the extent of Cannon's injury or what awaits us as a result. The impact Baldasso had was decisive in the first half in which, with more attention on our part in individual situations, we could have taken 6-8 points away from him which he did well to achieve. They are small things that they take, as it should be in big teams. We saw details from the other two matches that we should have improved to be closer to Milan: these are aspects that are difficult to find immediately, but I'm sure we will continue to work to try to metabolize themʺ.
