Dinamo Sassari – Brindisi, a real clash in the Italian Cup
Yesterday in the Italian Cup, Venezia made a little surprise eliminating Virtus Bologna 82-81, thanks to Milos Teodosic who played very bad the entire game and missing some shots in key moments of the game. In the other quarterfinal, Armani Milano had no problem against Cremona, winning 86-62 after a very good basketball. Today we will find out who are the next two semi-finalists from Brescia vs Fortitudo and Sassari and Brindisi games. The game between Sassari and Brindisi seems to be the most balanced and I will analyze it below.
This season continues to be a very good one for Sassari so far. They qualified in the next stage of Basketball Champions League, after finishing second in the group, while in Seria A they are on the second position with a 15-5 record, 3 victories away from leaders Virtus Bologna. In the last match, they travelled to Spain where they beat Manresa 64-61, causing a huge upset for the Spanish team because they needed a win to qualify further in the competition. However, Sassari started the game very well and after a poor second quarter, they took control of the game again and ruled until the final buzzer. The main contributors were: Miro Bilan (14 points and 8 rebounds), DyShawn Pierre (12 points and 8 rebounds) and Curtis Jerrells (11 points).
For Brindisi, the European dream is over after another loss in BCL against Zaragoza in the last round, 93-91. They finished in the last position of the group with a 5-9 record. Now, their focus is on national competitions, both Seria A and Cup. In the league, they are on 5th place, thanks to their win from last round against Pesaro, who currently is in the last position. They simply smashed their opponents 103-77 showing once again the great offensive appetite Brindisi has this season. They lost the first quarter 18-16, but that only made them angrier and the storm was unleashed after that quarter. Adrian Banks (25 points), Darius Thompson (19 points and 4 assists) and Raphael Gaspardo (16 points and 11 rebounds) were the main contributors of the team.
The teams already meet this season once, with Sassari winning 83-77 on Brindisi’s home soil. I expect the same result here because Sassari is a stronger team and their morale is very good. It’s important to see how much interest they bring for this competition and if they want to play more games or simply give up on this one and have some rest.
Photo: Basketball Champions League
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
