Virtus Bologna to prevail over Umana Venezia
The Italian Basketball Cup starts today with some interesting matches on the panel. The most interesting and balanced are the duel between Virtus Bologna and Reyer Venezia. Both teams are in good form and for sure they will try to add one more trophy to their achievements. Let’s see what they’ve done in the last matches.
Virtus Bologna played in Intercontinental Cup, which took place in Tenerife and despite a nice win in semifinals against San Lorenzo from Argentina, they had no chance against the home team in the final, which beat them 80-72, after a very good game from Marcelinho Huertas who finished with 26 points. Tenerife took an early advantage, after limiting their opponents to only 11 points in the first quarter and then was in charge of the whole game. For Virtus Bologna, the main contributors were Milos Teodosic (15 points, 7 rebounds and 8 assists), Giampaolo Ricci (12 points) and Julian Gamble (12 points). That competition will add some fatigue to Virtus’s players because they played 2 games in 3 days and also had to travel a long distance back to Italy.
In their last game, Venezia received the visit of Treviso in a balanced match. The highest lead of the game was by 8 points when Venezia had the advantage in last quarter 74-66. The biggest difference was made by rebounds, where the home team recorded 48, while their opponents 29. Venezia used 10 players in the game, with at least 10 minutes on the court which will help them a lot against Virtus. Their bench needs to continue to have great contributions while their starters must choose their shots more wisely. Jeremy Chappell (18 points and 3 assists), Austin Daye (14 points and 4 rebounds) and Mitchell Watt (10 points and 11 rebounds) were the main contributors for the team.
This clash will be tough for both sides because their roster is very balanced and both have good players that can come from the bench and contribute. They already met twice this season and both games were won by Virtus. I expect another win for Virtus, but only after a fierce battle.
Photo: Eurocup
Bogdan Vasile Tirc
