European Prospects

Reyer Venezia, Stella Azzurra Roma, Montepaschi Siena and Virtus Bologna won their quarterfinal and got their ticket to the semifinals of Saturday.

Reyer Venezia – PMS Moncalieri 72 – 49

Venice had no problem to clinch his spot into the semis beating Moncalieri with a strong first half that ended with +22 difference for Reyer.
Despite 1995 forward Nicola Akele had just 5 points and 4 rebounds, Venice had nice things from 1994 big man Francesco Candussi (12 points and 5 rebounds), 1994 center Vincenzo Pipitone (11 points and 7 rebounds) and 1995 forward Giovanni Vildera (10 points and 6 rebounds).

PMS had 15 points by his 1995 guard Lorenzo Baldasso, but with just 5/19 from the field.

Stella Azzurra Roma – Assigeco Casalpusterlengo 60 – 57

With a big last quarter Rome managed to get a place in the last four sending home Casalpusterlengo, who can complain against themselves for their 6/18 from free throw lane.
Stella Azzurra’s 1994 point guard Alessandro Grande had a total game scoring 25 points, grabbing 5 rebounds and dishing 4 assists. 1997 swingman Andrea La Torre nailed an important 3 pointer, but he didn’t make any other relevant play in his match.

For Casalpusterlengo, 1995 born Georgian forward Giga Janelidze had another big game with 15 points and 15 rebounds, but he found help only in 1996 guard Riccardo Rossato who had 11 points in 19 minutes. Bad game for 1995 points guard Luca Vencato (4 points in 38 minutes) and 1995 forward Daniel Donzelli (7 points with 3/11 in 22 minutes).

Montepaschi Siena – Virtus Siena 71-64

A perfect third quarter (23-9) has been the key for the upset of the day. Even if Virtus Siena was more complete than Montepaschi the day of rest gave big benefits to Montepaschi, who reached the semifinals.
While the Swedish connection of Montepaschi took another day of rest (just 4 points in 17 minutes for 1995 forward Johan Lofberg and 0 in 5′ for 1995 guard Jakub Johansson) the foul trouble couldn’t stop 1994 point guard Alessandro Procacci who buried 19 points in 21 minutes. Together with him 1995 guard Alessandro Cappelletti scored 19 points in 26 minutes and 1995 big man Leonardo Marini had 12 points and 12 rebounds. 8 points in 26 minutes for 1994 forward Camillo Bianchi.

Virtus Siena had his best game from 1994 forward Riccardo Rovere who scored 15 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in his 38 minutes on the field, and also 1996 forward Pierfrancesco Oliva had 18 points and 8 rebounds (but an ugly 3/8 from the line). 1994 point guard Marco Cucco had 12 points, while Siena missed the points of 1994 forward Corrado Bianconi who grabbed 10 rebounds but scored just 5 points with 2/9 from the field. 1995 forward Andrea Martino had 8 points, but played just 15 minutes due to the foul trouble.

Virtus Bologna – Comark Bergamo 86 – 52

There isn’t any story to tell about this game where Virtus Bologna took an early 30-11 lead after the first quarter and went straight to the semifinals.
For Virtus 1994 & 1995 big men Aristide Landi and Adam Pechacek scored 21 points each, 1994 point guard Matteo Imbrò went for 11 and 1995 forward Simone Fontecchio had 9 points.

Bergamo had 11 points by 1995 forward Alessandro Spatti.