Virtus Bologna hosting Promitheas for the revenge
In Group A of Eurocup, this round will host the big derby between Virtus Bologna and Promitheas Patras. Both teams have a 6-2 record and this game is very important for Virtus because the Greek team was the first team that beat them in the current season. In the last game between them, Promitheas won the game 78-69, especially thanks to Langston Hall who finished that game with 16 points and 6 rebounds.
This season is still pink for Virtus despite 2 defeats in the last 3 games. In the weekend, they suffered the first loss in Seria A, away at Cremona 78-66. That game was simply awful for Virtus, especially due to their shooting, finishing with only 3 three-pointers made out of 26 attempts. It’s true that Cremona had 2 three-pointers out of 21 attempts, but they scored more from the free-throw line and also won the rebounds battle 55-35. Virtus didn’t take advantage of opponents 17 turnovers and forced some shots instead of combining and finding the open man. For Virtus, the main contributors were: Frank Gaines (19 points), Julian Gamble (12 points and 3 rebounds) and Vincent Hunter (10 points and 9 rebounds). Milos Teodosic ended with only 1 assist, a stats that show how great worked Virtus’s offense.
Promitheas is still on the second place in Greece after they beat Lavrio in the last round, 77-66. They managed to overcome the loss against AEK in the previous round and now they have good morale before this big game in Italy. Their offense wasn’t awesome, but they fixed that with very good defense and a good team-play, recording 26 assists during the contest. The main performers were: Chase Fieler (18 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists), Octavius Ellis (13 points and 5 rebounds) and Dimitrios Agravanis (10 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists). They used 12 players in the game, all of them playing over 10 minutes and that will help a lot their young players because they need minutes in a competitive game in order to grow and develop in the future. During last week, they lost Giorgos Bogris who left the team and joined Iberostar Tenerife.
This game will be very interesting because both teams are in a very good form and their rosters are strong. Virtus’s roster is stronger and giving the fact that they lost the first game against them, revenge is the only aim for them. They need to show to their fans that Cremona’s result was only a mistake and that don’t happen again in this derby.
Photo: Eurocup
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
