Bertram's March Madness begins: first stop at the home of the Cup winner and lone leader Trento
Nine matches to play between Serie A and the Champions League from the first to the penultimate day of the month. It is a strategic March for the future of the season of Bertram Derthona Tortona, busy defending the playoff position in the championship and snatching qualification for the quarter-finals of the European cup at the end of the current round of the second phase. It begins tomorrow with one of the most difficult challenges to face at the moment in the whole Serie A Unipol, the away match at Trento galvanized by the recent triumph in the Final Eight. Starting from the trip to Trentino, the matches will follow one another at a rate of three a week until the end of the month, with five home commitments between Patras, Varese, AEK Athens, Pistoia and Wurzburg and four away matches between Trento, the return to Patras, Scafati and Venice.
CHALLENGE TO THE ELITE The match of the 20th day at home to Dolomiti Energia Trentino, scheduled for tomorrow, Saturday 1 March, at 20 pm at Il T Quotidiano Arena, represents for the Tortona team the resumption of official matches two and a half weeks after their exit in the quarterfinals of the Coppa Italia. That is, the competition that made their opponent's season even more special, also the sole leader of the championship with its 30 points, 10 more than Derthona, called upon to repel the assault of the closest pursuer of its eighth position, Venezia, two points behind in the standings. The match, the first that the Trentino team coached by Paolo Galbiati will play after the Italian kermesse, will be preceded by the club's celebration for what was achieved at the Inalpi Arena in Turin. The celebrations will begin in the village outside the sports hall set up for the occasion with the display of the trophy, which the team will then carry inside for the final crowd bath in the "sold out" Trento facility.
DESIRE FOR REDEMPTION Amidst the fireworks of the home fans, Bertram's desire to restart will have to be inserted, struggling with 6 consecutive defeats in various competitions. The support also comes from the first leg, when in the last match of 2024 Severini and his teammates imposed themselves in Casale with one of the most convincing performances of their season, beating Trento, also at the time the sole leader, by 91-77 with the match already decided on +13 at the end of the third quarter never put in danger by the guests again.
WHERE TO SEE IT ON TV The race will be broadcast live on Eurosport 2 and DAZN.
STATEMENTS "The break was important to recover physical and mental energy, I found the team very proactive and reactive to face this last part of the season. We must face the demanding month that begins tomorrow by playing one game at a time, seeking technical balances with great desire”, says the coach Walter De Raffaele. "Except for the home game against Bologna, both in the cup and in the championship the group has always provided competitive performances, but there is certainly bitterness and disappointment for having lost games that could have made us take a leap forward. On the challenge of Trento, I would first of all like to offer my most sincere compliments to the Trentino club as a whole for winning the Cup, it is a club that for years, with planning, has been at the top. As for the technical aspect, we will find a very talented opponent that makes one-on-one and athleticism its great weapons".
