Trieste takes control of the match halfway through the second quarter, extends the gap and manages until the siren, it ends 83-72 and Trieste returns to Serie A after just one year of Serie A2 beating Cantù 3-1.
A match that seemed balanced until the middle of the second quarter but which then took shape, highlighting how the strength of the Trieste team is too superior for a Cantù deprived of Moraschini. Trieste goes at double the speed of Cantù who instead relies a lot, too much, on his big men to create movements and actions who often end up losing the ball, while the home team manages to turn the ball around quickly in segments, easily creating free spaces for their players shooters. Cantù’s defense only increases in level in the fourth period when the gap becomes too wide to be able to recover quickly but there is little that can be done, the errors during the 40 minutes are too many and they are felt on the final result. Winning such an important match without the contribution of a fundamental player like Hickey is almost impossible, especially if he is unable to score easy lay-ups on the counterattack, doing so while defending terribly is even more so, the penetrations freely granted to Trieste and the long shots in red shirt left alone under the basket or defended with superficiality photograph the match, furthermore the 7/33 from outside the arc costs a lot to Cagnardi’s men who compared to Trieste they shoot much better from two (18/25) but compared to the team by Christian, 9/26, makes much fewer threes.
Cantù’s defeat was due to these factors, in addition to the fact of having underestimated in game 1 a Trieste team that was in very good form and had demonstrated its clear superiority over its opponents in these playoffs, losing only one match by one point and then winning them all . Cantù still has regrets about a game 2 that could have ended in a different way, due to Moraschini’s injury which reduced the rotations in game 4 as well as excluding one of the best Cantù players in these playoffs from the match. This year too, the final step to reach Serie A is missing, in the last three seasons twice in the final and once in the semi-final never managing to return to the top category, it’s something that needs to be resolved so as not to turn it into a curse.
Trieste has dominated this post-season, a 9-1 record with 6 away wins, overturning the field factor three times out of three after a regular season below expectations, yes due to some important injuries but also due to an identity of team that was created in the most important moment, that of the playoffs. After a year, Trieste returns to Serie A, dominating this post-season and beating two teams favored for promotion such as Forlì and Cantù. The Reyes factor has partly decided this off-season because it is the nucleus of the team that has made the difference, starting from Vildera, passing through Ruzzier, Filloy, Candussi up to Brooks and coach Jamion Christian, criticized at the beginning of the season for a game inclined towards three-point shooting and “Nba spectacle”, he then got used to the category and the championship, deciding to get serious in the playoffs. Trieste returns to Serie A!
THE NEWS
Trieste enters the field with only one objective: to close the series at home to avoid a game 5 which at the PalaDesio and with the inertia on Cantù’s side could become a Caporetto for Trieste who therefore starts very strong, creating spaces and going to the basket quickly also on +8 but only closing the first period at 20-14. Cantù seems to light up by scoring the only two triples of the first half in a row and making it 22-20 but then Ruzzier enters the game and in about a minute and a half he scores two three-pointers, one more difficult than the other, and an assist on the kiss for Vildera, an 8-0 run that shifts the balance, creating a decisive “sliding door” for the match, the 33-22 will however never be recovered by Cagnardi’s team.
The second half seems to be the start of a new game with Young’s two triples that allow Cantù to get back to -8, 42-34, before the fateful “break” by Trieste who scores 21 points against Cantù’s only 15 closing the third period at 63-47. The last quarter is a formality, Cantù tries in every way to win and Hickey recovers an important ball that can bring the Cantù players closer to Trieste, but the American sensationally misses the lay-up on the counterattack and then Young is unable to complete the tap-in by dunking, this is the play that closes and sums up the match: a Cantù in clear difficulty like its leader in game 3 Hickey.
Trieste wins 83-72 and returns to Serie A after just a year, while Cantù stops again after two years, one step away from promotion, this time in game 4.
Photo by Ciamillo Castoria
