Libertas Lucca- Castelfranco Frogs 66-51 (23-17; 38-31; 56-42)
FREEDOM LUCCA: Puccinelli, Canciello 9, Giusti 2, Servadio 2, Mattei, Lorenzi 18, Lombardi 6, Piercecchi ne, Guidi 8, Cecconi 21, Brunelli. All.: Romans
Debut with victory for Libertas Basket Lucca, which defeats the Frogs of Castelfranco at Palatagliate 66-51 and enters the round of 16 of the Tuscan Cup.
The panthers, despite the absence of Fracassini and Piercecchi, immediately started well with a 13-5 boosted by a Lorenzi who was immediately inspired from distance. Castelfranco manages to enter the game, but Cecconi’s penetrations keep Libertas ahead and they end the first quarter ahead 24-17. Two minutes of defensive break at the beginning of the second quarter gave the guests the chance to equalize at 24, but the red and whites responded with a second attempt to go forward with Canciello as the protagonist, closing at the interval at 38-31. From the third quarter, coach Romani’s boys tighten up on defense after a few minutes of balance, also gaining a considerable advantage. Throughout the second half, in general, contributions arrived from all the players, thanks to various collaborative plays and a fluid attack. At the beginning of the last quarter +20 was reached before a physiological drop in pace in the last minutes.
With this victory, Libertas will play the round of 16 against Sei Rose Rosignano, who won against Libertas Liburnia in their round of 16.
So coach Romani: “A victory of great value which certainly constitutes a good step forward in the dynamics of preparation for the championship. Compared to the first friendly outings, I certainly saw a more attentive and much more incisive team from a defensive point of view, although obviously there is still a long way to go until the start of the championship and the level we have the ambition to reach in order to compete for our objectives. Despite a somewhat complicated preparation, we have seen positive signs which certainly give us more confidence in the continuation of our work. As for the match, I saw a very positive attitude, especially for the first 30 minutes, where we led the match beyond a few declines which revitalized our opponents for a few minutes. Being still in the middle of preparation, in the last minutes there was a physiological drop in pace which froze the result and led us safely to the final siren. On our side Cecconi and Lorenzi, the latter was immediately inspired by the long distance, but in general I saw a team that responded well to the stimuli and also to a bit of provocation on my part regarding an excessively soft approach and work in preparation for this match. The next match will be against the strong Rosignano, a team that is doing very well in this Tuscan cup as it is able to cancel out one of the top favorites in our group like Libertas Livorno as the last match. An even higher level match awaits uswhich we will approach with the aim of making further steps forward in building our team identity.”
In the preliminary round of the event, the Lucca Sky Walkers were eliminated in the match on 10 September, defeated by Rosignano, Libertas’ future opponent, 65-81.
