Tofas needs the win vs. Umana Venezia
Another interesting match will take place in Eurocup’s Round 8 between Tofas and Umana Venezia. While Venezia is almost 100% sure for his qualification, Tofas still need some wins to be sure that will advance in the next phase of Eurocup. Let’s see the results they’ve made during the weekend.
Tofas met in the weekend a hurt Fenerbahce’s team, who had a lot of bad results and a very poor start in the Euroleague, making Coach Obradovic going crazy in the last game against CSKA Moscow. However, they were much stronger than Tofas and were able to get the win 82-76. At halftime, Tofas scored 32 points to Fenerbahce’s 38. But, in the third quarter, the Euroleague giants scored 30 points, having a 22-point lead before the last period. Tofas tried to make a comeback, but in the end, they lost the game especially ‘’thanks’’ to Mahmutoglu who scored 29 points in 37 minutes with 12-19 from the field. For Tofas, the main contributors were the foreigners Tarik Phillip (18 points and 4 assists), Sammy Mejia (13 points and 6 rebounds) and D.J. White (12 points and 5 rebounds). It’s very impressive to see that Mejia, White or Lojeski are playing so well despite their 33+ age. They used 9 players in the rotation, with 12+ minutes on the court each.
Umana Venezia travelled to Varese in the last round of Seria A Basketball and had a very tough match. They ended with a loss in overtime 91-93, with a 75-75 tie after four quarters. Varese started the game very well and at halftime they had a 13 points lead with Venezia finishing with only 9 buckets made in 20 minutes. However, in the second half, they managed to outscore their opponent with the same amount, but in overtime, they had no chance with Varese taking control from the start. The main contributors for Venezia were: Michael Bramos (17 points), Mitchell Watt (14 points and 9 rebounds) and Jeremy Chappell (14 points and 4 rebounds). They used a 10 men rotation for this game.
It will be a very tough match, but Venezia has some chances to win the game. They must pay attention to Lojeski, Phillip and Mejia and also keep them under 30% from the distance because those shots are very important for Tofas’s offense. In order to get the win, Venezia must have a very good game defensively.
Photo: eurocupbasketball.com
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
