Winning sprint: Derthona beats Napoli
Bertram Derthona-GeVi Napoli 83-77
(24-19, 46-35, 66-55)
Scoreboards:
Derthona: Mortellaro ne, Wright 3, Cannon 2, Baldi ne, Tavernelli 4, Filloy 14, Mascolo 7, Severini 6, Daum 11, Cain 11, Macura 25. Coach Ramondino
Naples: Zerini 14, McDuffie 10, Matera ne, Vitali 4, Velicka 15, Parks 11, Marini 2, Uglietti, Lombardi 6, Rich 15, Totè, Grassi ne. All. Buscaglia
Bertram Derthona returned to success at the PalaEnergica Paolo Ferraris, without Sanders, who led the scoring against Napoli right from the start, resisted the opponents' attempts to return in the second half and made the decisive extension in the final minutes. Four players in double figures (Macura 25 p, Filloy 14 p, Cain and Daum 11 p apiece) lead the Bianconeri to a deserved success.
After a favorable start to the match in Naples, Bertram takes command of the score thanks to the initiatives of JP Macura (the great protagonist of the fraction with 14 points) closing the first quarter ahead 24-19. In the second period Derthona showed great energy and promptness and extended their margin, exceeding double figures (36-23). In the final stages, GeVi tries to shorten the lead, but the team coached by coach Ramondino ends the first half ahead 46-35.
Upon returning from the locker rooms, Napoli gets back into the match, reaching -4 (46-42): Bertram then extends the lead taking advantage of Macura's great streak which starts the new Juventus break. The distances remain unchanged at the end of the half: at 30' the score is 66-55. In the last quarter GeVi manages to close the gap again, taking advantage of Rich's offensive talent to bring themselves back to -2 (73-71) with 4 minutes to go. What unlocks Bertram's attack is a frontal triple from Macura (who seals hers with this basket career high in Italy, 25 points). In the point-to-point final, it was Cain's baskets that definitively broke the balance and gave Derthona a very important success, the second in a row after the one obtained last Sunday in Sassari.
Thus coach Marco Ramondino at the end of the race: ʺI personally and the whole team are happy with the match: beyond the important victory in Sassari, the team hasn't experienced very fluid weeks from the point of view of work and the physical situation. When during the week we don't go too far on the injury situation it's not pre-tactical, for which I thank our group of players. Tonight we deserved to win, we were always ahead in terms of scores even if in the final we had a bit of a lack of freshness both from a mental and physical point of view. In the first half, 30% of Napoli's points came from details that we can iron out, we scored more than 80 points even missing 10 free throws. From an offensive point of view, the boys squeezed everything they could out of the game, finding good solutions. We have several players whose necks we are straining in training and in matches, I think this was one of the causes of the lack of freshness against a really aggressive defenseʺ.
