Game two of the quarter-finals of the promotion playoffs of the Serie A2 Old Wild West championship was played this evening. After the victory, in the end, clear in the score in match one, Trapani and Piacenza took to the parquet of the Pala Shark in Trapani again. For the third time in a row the coach has chosen to leave out seniors Andrea Renzi and Yancarlos Rodriguez. And the result was a game very similar to the previous one, with Piacenza, who approached better, who led for many minutes with advantages even in double figures and with Trapani who capitalized to the maximum on the end of the second quarter with two consecutive steals by Chris Horton (man of the match for the Granata (16 points, 14 rebounds, 4 blocks) who shortened the gap and with a 20-6 third quarter was enough to put the game on ice. Not much, probably, certainly enough to a team like Piacenza, which has played with only one American since time immemorial and which has put everything it had on the field. But once again the depth of the Sharks’ roster and the infinite solutions available to coach Diana made the difference In game one the performance of Alibegovic was better and, after Horton, he was the most used grenade, the only one, together with the American centre, to reach double figures with 15 points. All the others performed in spurts, protagonists now and then of important plays Mark’s errors. Piacenza finished with four men in double figures, with Veronesi as the best scorer at 16, followed by the former Bonacini at 12, Serpilli with 11 and Skeens with 10 (+ 14 rebounds).
Now the series moves to Emilia and on Friday evening Trapani has the first match ball available to close the score.
The match:
1st quarter: Trapani starts with the usual quintet made up of Imbrò, Notae, Mian, Alibegovic and Horton, Piacenza responds with Sabatino, Veronesi, Filoni, Serpilli and Skeens. Piacenza starts with 0-4 scored by Serpilli/Skeens. Alibegovic responds with four points in a row and makes an impact. But the Sharks, as in match one, struggle and Piacenza tries to escape at 4-9. Coach Diana timeout. Veronesi again brings the score to 0-8 for the guests. Alibegovic breaks his fast with an alley-oop served to him by Gentile. Trapani continues to struggle in attack and turnovers follow one another. Luckily Piacenza also makes a mistake and with just over a minute to go the score is 11-14 after a 5-0 by Marini/Mobio. A triple from Mollura closes the quarter with a score of 14-17.
2nd quarter: Mollura opens the quarter again with a triple that ties the game at 17. Veronesi brings his team back ahead with a two-point basket. Skeens and a triple from Bonacini give the margin back to Piacenza who with two free throws again from Bonacini escapes to +9 (17-26). A triple by Gallo forces coach Diana to time out at 17-29. Trapani is stopped by Mollura’s triple at the start of the quarter. Alibegovic stops the bleeding on the counterattack. Diana tries the three little ones card, with Imbrò, Gentile and Notae and immediately gets a nail from the American. Horton steals the ball and nails the -8 at 31-39. Coach Salieri calls a timeout to organize the last attack, but Horton steals the ball again and goes to dunk. He goes to the break at 33-39.
3rd quarter: after a couple of errors on both sides, Alibegovic scores the first points of the quarter from the line. Skeens scores and Alibegovic again. Skeens and Imbrò again and Trapani remains close at 39-43. Now it’s Piacenza who has the wet powder in attack and Trapani slowly recovers. Horton scores -2 and coach Salieri calls timeout at 41-43 after four minutes of play. Serpilli scores but Marini responds with a triple. Horton and Skeens are the protagonists of a match within the match, but the American from Trapani takes the lead and with a tap-in signs the overtaking and the first Shark lead of the evening at 46-45. Two free throws from captain Mollura give Trapani a full lead. Piacenza continues to make mistakes and Pullazi punishes them from beyond the arc. Gentile also scores on the counterattack. Trapani’s score, still open, is 12-0. The last action is by Piacenza with Gentile who naively gives three free throws to Filoni. He doesn’t pay the price because he scores 0/3 and, after a 20-6 quarter, the score goes to the final siren at 53-45.
4th quarter: Veronesi opens the quarter with a triple. Marini goes 1/2 from the line. Skeens shortens again and Veronesi from afar scores -1 at 54-53. Coach Diana puts his two USA back in: Horton starts sweeping the boards again and Notae immediately goes to the basket. A support from Alibegovic makes it +5 at 58-53 halfway through the last quarter. Horton stops with a recovery and then capitalizes on a splendid assist between the legs of Imbrò’s opponent. Horton again who this time collects the assist from Alibegovic and the Sharks escape to +9 (62-53) forcing coach Salieri to time out with 3′ and 28″ from the end. A triple from Imbrò and a dunk from Gallo bring the score to 65 -55 and at the timeout called this time by coach Diana. Alibegovic makes 1/2 from the line. Bonacini scores from below. Veronesi commits a foul in attack but Marini loses the ball. Veronesi makes a mistake after an excellent defense by Mollura and Horton on the counterattack puts the seal on the match which is still Trapani’s. It ends 69-61.
Trapani Shark – UCC Assigeco Piacenza 69-61 (14-17, 19-22, 20-6, 16-16)
Trapani Shark: Chris Horton 16 (8/10, 0/0), Amar Alibegovic 15 (6/6, 0/3), Matteo Imbro 8 (1/3, 2/7), Marco Mollura 8 (0/3, 2/2), JD Notae 7 (2/3, 1/4), Pierpaolo Marini 7 (1/6, 1/3), Joseph Yantchoue Mobio 3 (0/3, 1/2), Rei Pullazi 3 (0 /0, 1/3), Stefano Gentile 2 (1/6, 0/1), Fabio Mian 0 (0/0, 0/1), Fabrizio Pugliatti 0 (0/0, 0/0), Veljko Dancetovic 0 (0/0, 0/0)
Free throws: 7 / 10 – Rebounds: 42 12 + 30 (Chris Horton 14) – Assists: 17 (Stefano Gentile 5)
UCC Assigeco Piacenza: Giovanni Veronesi 16 (0/4, 5/13), Federico Bonacini 12 (1/4, 2/6), Michele Serpilli 11 (4/6, 1/4), Brady Skeens 10 (5/7 , 0/0), Filippo Gallo 8 (1/1, 2/5), Gherardo Sabatini 2 (1/4, 0/4), Ursulo D’almeida 2 (1/4, 0/0), Niccolo Filoni 0 (0/2, 0/1), Lorenzo Querci 0 (0/0, 0/2), Samuele Angeletti 0 (0/0, 0/0), Umberto Manzo 0 (0/0, 0/0), Matteo Gherardini 0 (0/0, 0/0)
Free throws: 5 / 11 – Rebounds: 31 9 + 22 (Brady Skeens 14) – Assists: 14 (Gherardo Sabatini 4)
