Brescia had 16-0 run in the last minutes vs. Venezia
With 5 minutes remaining from the game, Reyer Umana Venezia had a comfortable lead 59-49 in Brescia. It was not a surprise, because the visitors were controlling the entire game, with the home team struggling to tie them. Brescia had some roster problems, since Ojars Silins, Ken Horton and Marco Ceron sidelined for this encounter so their chances were smaller against the reigning champions of Italy, Umana Venezia.
But the impossible just happened. Venezia’s players have lost the concentration in the last minutes, being overconfident at 59-49 that they cannot escape the win. It was exactly the moment when Leonessa Brescia could align for the first time their best 5 players because the entire game they tried to survive mostly with the help of the bench. One of the main problem during the whole game was that Brescia’s center, Tyler Cain accumulated very quickly 2, 3 and then 4 fouls and that’s why he was benched a lot. But in the last 5 minutes, Brescia threw their best players on the court in a last desperate chance to produce the miracle or at least to cut the deficit. And they did it in an impressive way. The host team came like a hurricane with a 16-0 run, taking the score from 49-59 to 65-59 and sealing the win. Even more, in the last 5 minutes, Brescia scored 21 points, receiving instead only 5!!!
After such a poor scoring till the last 5 minutes, Brescia made a perfect fourth quarter, eventually won with 29-17. I didn’t understand the weak reaction of the opponents, Umana Venezia a team and a coach who dominated the last seasons in Italian basketball. They couldn’t’ stop the bleed, having no solution at all in front of Brescia’s run.
These two teams will meet again 2 times in the Eurocup Top16 group, which they share it, together with Promitheas Patras and Oldenburg.
Photo: Eurocup
Gratian Cormos
