Here it is, the first thunderous trumpet of the playoffs Trieste Basketball: the red and white victory arrives in game 1 against Reale Mutua Torino (76-83) and the field factor of the quarter-finals is immediately reversed in favor of the Giulians. A game with many faces, with countless overtaking and counter-overtaking, but with a last quarter in which the team Jamie Christian she is surgical as hell in finding the decisive break in the last three minutes, taking advantage of the offensive verve and a defense that took away oxygen from Franco Ciani’s team.
Campogrande remains out of the red and white rotations, as expected: Trieste starts well, with triples from Reyes and Brooks to wet the series (2-6). The red and white hands are warm from afar even with Candussi and the red and whites are temporarily masters of the inertia, flying to 7-19 still potting threes, with Reyes unleashed (7-19 at 5′). Reale Mutua emerged well from Ciani’s timeout, immediately with a 4-0 break, but the attacking rebounds played into the hands of the Giulians, the “table” of Filloy Trieste keeps pace and then gets back into double digits with Brooks’ steal and basket. Vencato keeps the Piedmontese in rhythm, however the Julians’ fabulous percentages from afar (6/12 from three to the first siren), complete with a “bomb” of Bossi at the end of the first quarter, he delivers the score 18-28 in the 10th minute.
The flame immediately returned for Torino, with two triples to immediately bring them back into contact. Trieste loses a lot of balls and above all scores a paltry two points in three and a half minutes: this is how the partial materializes in favor of Reale Mutua, who puts their noses ahead in the 13th minute at 33-30. Ruzzier unlocks the guests with two free throws and Deangeli he regains the advantage from the corner, then goes head to head with Pepe to counter-overtake and with a lot of balance in the minutes that follow. Reyes in layup scores the 36-36, Brooks he scores the +3 bomb in the 17th minute which is then responded by the home team who find another break up to 45-41 at mid-match.
The pace seems to drop in the third quarter, but Turin does better than Trieste in the first minutes: Thomas, Poser and De Vico they push Reale Mutua ahead 56-48 in the 25th minute, which forces Christian to take refuge in a time-out. Reyes tries to put the chestnuts out of the fire in a difficult moment, but the hosts are still +9 with DeVico (this time from three) trying to give the match a break. But there is the usual Brooks with four points to keep the red and whites alive, Filloy further reduces the gap and is -1 (60-59). And it is once again the Italian-Argentine who scores a very important triple at the buzzer from more than seven metres, for a new counter-overtaking in the 30th minute (62-64).
Torino makes a brawl with the shot at the start of the last quarter, on the other side Vildera he then gives +4 in his layup. And that Reale Mutua is in difficulty can be seen from the many free turnovers, to the point that it is coach Ciani who asks for a minute with 6’33” left. At 62-68 it is Pepe who gives a start from long range, to which however he responds Reyes with the same coin, the Piedmontese immediately after a 4-0 break and are still within a stone’s throw. Then there were many errors on both sides, even if Trieste had the significant advantage of burdening the home team with fouls and giving themselves several trips to the line with Ruzzier and Brooks to make it 4/4 (69-75 with 3’08” left). Thomas keeps Torino afloat with 120” left after an in&out by Filloy from three. Ruzzier finds the winning support on the scoreboard, the guest defense does superlative things in a couple of actions where the Piedmontese lose two very poisonous balls (71-77 with one minute to go). And it’s Filloy who this time doesn’t make a mistake from afar, again with the help of the friendly table: it’s +9, a huge guarantee on the match. Vencato is the last to let go, bringing Reale Mutua back to -5 with 12” left (76-81), Brooks he closes all the speeches with two out of two from the line of charity. Trieste wins and is 1-0 in the series: the playoffs couldn’t have started better than this.
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REALE MUTUA TORINO 73
BASKETBALL TRIESTE 80
(18-28; 45-41; 62-64)
Below are the scores…
