Next Gen Cup, the Final Eight goal achieved in Rovereto. The balance of coaches Ansaloni and Ablatico
The second stage in Rovereto, which just concluded , achieved a draw . A far better record than the inaugural stage in Pesaro last November. Bertram Yachts Tortona achieved the desired result in the qualifying round of the Legabasket IBSA Next Gen Cup , the youth competition for the U19 Excellence teams of the sixteen Serie A clubs.
At the PalaMarchetti in the Trentino city, the team was looking for a spot in the Final Eight in Naples , and they did. After three wins out of three in the Marche region, which had put the black and white team in pole position to qualify for the "Magnificent Eight," Rovereto needed only a win against Pallacanestro Trieste in the second of four scheduled games to book their spot in the knockout stage. Losses against group winner Carpegna Prosciutto Papalini Pesaro and in the second-place play-off against Nutribullet Treviso —followed by a final-day victory over Varese Basketball —prevented them from finishing higher in Group A , but not from dropping out of the coveted top four.
Third place will qualify them to face EA7 Emporio Armani Milano, second in Group B, in the quarterfinals at the PalaBarbuto on April 10th , Easter Monday. If they win, they will play the semifinals the following day against the winner of the Pesaro-Umana Reyer Venezia match. The 2022/23 title final would be decided by the winner of the other half of the draw, which includes Dolomiti Energia Trentino, Treviso, Tezenis Verona, and Trieste, in order of seeding.
On an individual level, Bertram closed the first phase with three players averaging double figures in points, led by Nicholas Errica with 13.9 , followed by Lorenzo Baldi with 13.0 , the Juventus assist man with 3.1 assists per game, and Lamine Tandia with 10.0 , the team's best rebounder with 7.7 rebounds per game, with Giacomo Zanetti – the player on loan for the Trentino stage – also coming close to reaching double figures in scoring with 9.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks on average in the Rovereto games.
STATEMENTS
The head coach and technical manager of the Bertram youth sector, Luca Ansaloni"A great satisfaction to have reached the Final Eight, a goal that we set for ourselves and that we managed to achieve on the field. It's clear that we were already starting from the good performance in Pesaro which represented a decent starting point towards achieving the objective. In Rovereto we played some good matches, another not too good against Treviso, while against Pesaro, even if lost, it was a match that gave us some ideas for improvement both individually and as a team. The other two matches were more manageable and, even if in less than perfect conditions, we managed to win them and secure qualification. Starting from third position - keep it going - we will go to challenge opponents who have excellent potential, starting from the quarter-final against Milan. It will be a great challenge for us and we will try to find ourselves in the best possible conditions. But from here to there we will have our good commitments in the championship to face, both in Serie C Gold and in U19 Eccellenza, so a good journey awaits us in these months, hoping then to make a good impression in Naples".
The executive vice president of the Derthona Basketball Lab, Andrea Ablatico"I would like to thank Vanoli Cremona and its general manager Andrea Conti for the loan of Zanetti. Thanks also to Legabasket's events manager, Marco Aloi, for the excellent organization of the event and also for the help he was able to provide us with to resolve a small problem. We are happy with how it went in Rovereto on the pitch, the results satisfy us, now we will see if we can do well in Naples too".
FINAL RANKINGS
GROUP A
1) Carpegna Prosciutto Papalini Pesaro 14 points
2) Nutribullet Treviso 12
3) Bertram Yachts Tortona 10
4) Pall. Trieste 6
5) UnaHotels Reggio Emilia 6
6) Banco di Sardegna Sassari 6
7) Varese Basketball 2
8) Happy Casa Brindisi 0
GROUP B
1) Dolomiti Energia Trentino 12 points
2) EA7 Emporio Armani Milan 10
3) Tezenis Verona 10
4) Umana Reyer Venice 10
5) GeVi Napoli 6
6) Germani Brescia 6
7) Givova Scafati 2
8) Virtus Emilbanca Bologna 0
FINAL EIGHT SCOREBOARD IN NAPLES
QUARTER-FINALS – MONDAY 10 APRIL
Carpegna Prosciutto Papalini Pesaro – Umana Reyer Venice
EA7 Emporio Armani Milan – Bertram Yachts Tortona
Dolomiti Energia Trentino – Pall. Trieste
Nutribullet Treviso – Tezenis Verona
SEMI-FINALS – TUESDAY 11 APRIL
Vincente Pesaro – Venice / Vincente Milan – Tortona
Winning Trento – Trieste / Winning Treviso – Verona
FINAL – WEDNESDAY 12 APRIL
