Next weekend the Provinces tournament will be played in Medicina, in the Bologna area. The selection of Piacenza and Parma will also be able to count on the athlete of the Under 13 Elite of Piace Basket, Marcello Zangrandi, who is fresh from the prestigious international Entry Level tournament Città di Ferrara. An event which saw the participation of some of the most important clubs on the European basketball scene, the Piacenza native was selected by Orange Bassano, a club which boasts one of the most important Italian youth sectors and which for the occasion has replenished its ranks with athletes on loan from clubs from Ferrara and Piacenza.
In the opening match against Virtus Bologna, Bassano made the decisive run in the second quarter going into halftime at 33-53. In the second half the Black Vs were unable to stop the Vicenza selection who secured a 76-97 victory with Zangrandi who marked his debut with 4 personal points. In the clash for the top of the group against Barcelona there was great balance throughout the opening quarter (19-22), then the Catalans changed gear and ran away after returning from the locker room to win 68-122. Best performance for the boy from Piacenza, author of 10 points. In the third and final match of the qualifying phase, Orange took off early (9-26) and left bottom team Red Star no chance, beaten 52-95. For Zangrandi 6 points on the scoresheet.
In the semi-final to access the final, Bassano led the match in the first half (19-23), but Milan recovered and proceeded in great balance (48-47 at half-time, 75-73 at the last pit stop). However, the last partial was scored by Olimpia, which thus achieved a 98-89 victory with Zangrandi scoring 4 points. Without history the final valid for the lowest step of the podium. The winner was the Venetian selection who started strong (30-10) and beat Bayern Munich 96-71. The Piace Basket athlete finished with 2 points. The final ranking of the event was as follows: 1st Barcelona, 2nd Olimpia Milano, 3rd Orange Bassano, 4th Bayern Munich, 5th Virtus Bologna, 6th Stella Rossa, 7th Panathinaikos, 8th Reyer Venezia.
On Saturday we will therefore take to the field for the Provinces tournament, with the selection of Piacenza and Parma facing that of Bologna and Ferrara. In the other semi-final, a match between the representatives of Reggio Emilia and Modena opposing that of Romagna. The finals are on Sunday. The Piacenza selection, which will be coached by Riccardo Tomassini (Bakery Piacenza) e Marco Palumbo (Fulgor Fidenza), is composed of Leonardo Padrini and Raffaele Accorsi (Bakery Piacenza), Martino Azzali (Basketball Borgonovo), Achille Carraglia and Marcello Zangrandi (Like Basketball), Alberto Bonati, Lorenzo Mazzaschi, Giovanni Sorianini and Gabriele Zanoni (Cus Parma), Ettore Aldo Fontanazza and Walter Mattei (Fulgor Fidenza), e Aleandro Kasa (Parma Project). Injured and therefore replaced Alessandro Guastoni (Basket Podenzano), reserves at home Federico Saltarelli (Like Basketball), Simone Guerra (Basket Noceto) e Simone Bertolotti (Cus Parma).
