Venturina eliminated in game 2, the Gea boys in the playoff semifinals

GROSSETO – Gea Basketball Grosseto flies to the semi-finals. On Wednesday evening, at the Palasport in via Austria, Marco Santolamazza’s boys, thanks to a great display of character won 74-66, made the most of their home advantage to beat Studio Arcadia Valdicornia Venturina again and qualify for the Final Four of the championship of Regional Division 1.

“It was, as expected, a very tough match – commented Santolamazza – but the boys were exceptional in always staying in the game, even when the opponents seemed to have something more than us. The team with the most character won, with a huge heart that made her overcome every obstacle. I said the day before that this match would be resolved in the fourth half. We managed to catch up with our opponents in the third quarter and in the last 10 minutes we delivered the knockout blow.”
In front of an almost sold out Palasport, due to the presence of numerous Venturina supporters, the two teams gave life to an exciting match, passed from one hand to the other during the first half, with the Gistri boys confirming the their quality with excellent shooters. In the long run, however, the Grosseto stars emerged and with a few bombs and a lot of determination they set the tone and brought home an extraordinary team success, with five players in double figures.

First quarter played on the edge of balance, with Gea finding the maximum advantage at 15-11 and 19-15, but suffering a break of 0-9 which allows Venturina to close at +5. In the second half, after a small local recovery, Valdicornia extended up to +9 (26-35), but in the final stages Gea recovered something, despite missing some free throws, and went into the long half at -4. The third quarter was exciting. Gea equalizes with Scurti at 38-38, goes under, the bombs of Piccoli and Romboli (who gets injured in the action and will never return) bring it to 49-43, but the triples of Agostini and Giannetti make it 51-51 at 30′. Mari’s bomb after 1’30 puts the Grosseto team back on top, who take a good margin point after point. A bomb from Liberati, decisive in the second half with eight points and two long-range shots, allowed the decisive extension to 62-55. Valdicornia tries to react, but Grosseto always finds a way to respond and maintain the right distance for an overall peaceful finish. In the final seconds, a technical foul called against Franceschini allows the gap to be brought to eight points and the party to begin in the stands and to await the outcome of Thursday evening’s duel between Castelfranco Frogs and league leaders Libertas Lucca, who won game 1, to find out the opponent of the semi-finals, which will start on Saturday 27th in Lucca or Sunday 28th in Grosseto, in case of success for Castelfranco.
Donoratico is already among the top four, which won 67-65 on Wednesday evening on the Calcinaia pitch.

Game 2, Gea Grosseto-Valdicornia 74-66
GEA GROSSETO: Domenichini ne, Scurti 10, Fanelli 11, Piccoli 14, Ignarra 2, Furi 10, Ricciarelli 3, Liberati 8, Alvarez Rodriguez ne, Romboli 3, Mari 13. Coach Marco Santolamazza.
VALDICORNIA: Agostini 10, Riccardi, Giannetti 20, Mancino, Cacciottolo, Fratto 9, Pistolesi, Benucci, Pagni 8, Barontini 3, Franceschini 7, Tracchi 9. Coach Matteo Gistri.
REFEREES: Mattia Filipovic and Tommaso Franci from Siena.
PARTIALS: 19-24, 31-35; 51-51
NOTE: technical to Tracchi at 1’05 of the 3rd quarter, to Franceschini at 9’45 of the 4th. Pagni out for fouls.