Play-off, game 1 Canusium-Molfetta. Molfetta Basketball, ranked fourth at the end of the single Serie C championship, is entering the play-offs for promotion to the interregional Serie B. President Solimini’s club, which achieved the seasonal goal, will face Canusium, top of the class at the end of the regular season with 40 points to its credit, 8 more than the red and whites returning from the defeat in Mesagne, in the last round of the regular season . Molfetta arrives at game 1, we play the best of three games, «aware of our strengths and our weaknesses – said Francesco Infante when introducing the match -. In the end we expected to finish fourth, although perhaps winning with Mesagne would have allowed us, given Castellaneta’s result, to finish third. In any case, we get there in good shape and above all – underlined the centre, MVP of the last round with 25 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists – with the awareness that the play-off matches are quite different from those of the regular season”. The post-season draw includes, for the first phase, the semi-final with Canusium in the best of three games scheduled for Sunday 28 April (game 1, at Trinitapoli), Thursday 2 May (game 2, at home) and Sunday 5 May ( possible game 3, still away from home).
The red and whites without pressure for game 1. On the horizon, for coach Gesmundo’s team, there is game 1 of the play-offs against a quintet, that of Canosa in Puglia, which proved to be an authentic bête noire for the red and whites: Canusium, in fact, won in the championship both in the first leg (86-80) and in the return leg, 80-84. «Canusium dominated the regular season – continued Infante -, it carried out an important summer signing campaign, it strengthened itself with a very strong player during the winter transfer market, it has a long, expensive roster and then it declared with facts that it wanted to win this championship. And if they don’t win it – he said again – it would be a big problem for them because in the end it would mean that they haven’t confirmed what they did in the regular season.” The locals, coached by coach Ciociola, hired Acosta in January (absent in Molfetta, he has an average points of 17.2), as well as having access to Ordine (20.5 average points per game), Migliori (15.1 average) and Murolo ( 13.9 on average). «We will go there to have fun – said Infante -, we are a group that gets along well and that has had fun this season, albeit with some ups and downs. Pressures? Zero – he cut it short -. We are there to have fun and see how it goes, they are there to win the championship.” The appointment with race 1 is for Sunday 28 April at the PalaPertini in Trinitapoli at 7.00 pm.
