The last day of the Serie A1 regular season sees all the teams on the field on Saturday 20 April, with Allianz Geas preparing to face RMB Brixia Basket Brescia. For fourth place you need a victory and the simultaneous defeat of Magnolia Campobasso in Bologna, at which point the basket quotient will determine the final ranking.
Brescia remained out of the race for the playoffs, but they are a treacherous team capable of putting even the top teams in difficulty. In the first leg the Rossonere only managed to come away with 3 points at the end. In the offensive half of the pitch, coach Zanardi’s team shoots 33% from long range and is very dangerous in attacking rebounds: with 9.4 per game they are the second best team in the championship. Among Brixia’s ranks there are several players capable of worrying the opposing defenses: the number one danger is Garrick, second best scorer in the Acon series with 16 points on average, 40% from 3 beyond and 2.2 assists and 1.1 steals. To support the Australian guard, Brescia can count on the young point guard born in 2005 Zanardi who scores 13.3 points per game shooting 44% from the field, 5.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists and Tassinari who contributes with 8.1 points and 2 assists on average. While under the basket Louka adds 12.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game and Skoric is the best among him for offensive rebounds (2.3).
Geas assistant coach Martina Gargantini commented as follows: “Last important match of the season for the rankings. We are coming off a home defeat and we want to take back the two points to end the championship well and try to finish fourth. Brescia is a team with talent on the outside, especially Garrick and Zanardi, and with solid long players; therefore we will have to play a game of energy and defensive attention for 40 minutes, while in attack we want to try to play with pace and push in transition”.
