Gabriella Serafica
We are in the final stages of the XII FIMBA Maxibasketball Championship in Pesaro and we start to do the math. The girls of Over 55 female they win the silver medal by losing 27-49 in the final to the proven Estonia team. Napoletano, Galli and Serafica scored 20 of the Italians’ 27 points. The absences weighed on the result but if we think that this team was born only 2 years ago, we can only be happy with the 2nd continental place in the Over 55 women’s masters basketball.
The Over 60 in the semifinals it overcomes the strong Slovenia 71-66 after a very hard-fought match. Stama (17) and Tirel (15) lead the team to the category final that will be played on Sunday with Serbia. It will be sparks and beautiful basketball.
The Over 50 beats Ireland 71-64 and takes 5th place. Thursday’s defeat against Germany prevented our 50-year-olds from getting into the medal zone. The team has many new elements and some automatic mechanisms still have to develop. The best scorers of the tournament were Padalino (10 points on average per game), Andrè and Grappasonni (10.7).
And then there is the anomaly of Over 40: yesterday the derby with Italia Basket Over was suspended with 9’10” remaining on the score 53-52 for FIMBA due to “acts of violence and unauthorized entry onto the field”, as cited in the disciplinary note of the FIMBA Disciplinary Board. I am 9 players from FIMBA Italia and 6 from Italia Basket Over were expelled and disqualified. Strangely, FIMBA International decided to restart the match this morning (Saturday) between 3 surviving players from FIMBA Italia and 5 from Italia Basket Over last 67-73 and they will play the category final on Sunday. Moss & C. play for third place.
Tomorrow (Sunday) the last 3 matches await us:
– the Over 55s will play the final against Germany
– the Over 60s will also take the field for gold with Serbia
– the Over 65s will play for the bronze medal with Slovenia.
