Marsala – Seventh bittersweet day of the championship for Nuova Pallacanestro Marsala who, despite the 94-78 away defeat, return home with the awareness of having played on equal terms against one of the main candidates for promotion such as Dierre Reggio Calabria who exploited them at home his long-range shooters scoring 39 points from 6.75.
First quarter characterized by balance with Stankovic good at scoring and recovering balls in the first few minutes, the former Miculis under the basket dominating in defense and Tartamella very fast on the counterattacks surprising the Calabrians. But above all they have an inspired Angius who orchestrates well and scores five times from the field plus a triple and a center from the line which are worth 12 of the final 21 personal points. At the end of the period the locals got to +6 but first Frisella and then Donato with a nice incursion from the corner right on the first siren shortened the score and set the score at 23-19.
The second half of the game saw NPM as the protagonist with an 8-0 break. Gentile scores twice in a row from under the scoreboard, then Niang steals the ball on Dierre’s restart in midfield bringing his team up 1 and repeats it from short range shortly after sending NPM up 3 at 28-31 in the 7th minute . For a long stretch the Reggio team only scored from the line with Barrile and it was Miculis from the arc who brought the Marsala quintet to +4 with less than 4 minutes to play before the long break. The pressing ordered by coach Grillo puts the team in crisis and Gentile again scores the +6 basket on a recovered ball a minute later. However, Fazzari takes care of restoring the tie for the hosts with 8 consecutive points obtained with two triples and a field goal, while it is Railans for the Calabrians who gives his team the lead at the break at 44-40 with NPM not finds the potential three points on the technical whistle blown to coach Cotroneo in the last minute.
After the long break, Marsala again grabbed a draw of 47-47 in 3 minutes with a triple from Farruggia preceded again by a nice counterattack started by Tartamella and concluded by Niang. On the next two possessions the very young point guard responds again from the arc to Barrile’s three-pointer and the score is 50-50 with 6 minutes to play. However, NPM loses the concreteness in their conclusions and despite Farruggia’s third triple in the ten minutes of the period, Reggio doesn’t forgive, reaching +11 in 5′ with a partial work by Fazzari, Railans and Angius. The siren sounds at 69-60.
The last period opens with NPM finding only a nice basket from Cucchiara from the mid range and Dierre scoring two triples with Ripepi which widens the gap to +14. Marsala responds with Frisella, Tartamella and Farruggia (NPM’s best scorer with 18 points) but Angius and Ripepi are still from the arc twice (author of four centers of 6.75 in the last quarter) to push Grillo’s boys back. In the very last seconds of the match, which had been quiet until then, the first assistant Lilybetano Anteri was expelled following protests over the skirmish that broke out between Frisella, Angius and Railans due to an exchange of blows on the paint. The siren sounds on the final result of 94-78, a score that is far too wide and not very truthful as expressed by the NPM.
Nuova Pallacanestro Marsala will return to the field on Sunday 24 November at 6.00 pm for the home match at PalaMedipower against Gela Basket.
SCORESHEET:
Dierre Reggio Calabria – Nuova Pallacanestro Marsala 94-78
Partials: 23-19, 21-21, 25-20, 25-18.
Dierre Reggio Calabria: Railans 14, Vukosavljevic 4, La Mastra 5, Idone 2, Fazzari 19, Angius 21, Laganà 4, Ripepi 14, Barrile 11. All. Cotroneo.
New Marsala Basketball: Farruggia 18, Miculis 8, Cucchiara 2, Donato 4, Linares, Gentile 9, Frisella 11, Stankovic 4, Chen, Tartamella 12, Niang 10. Coach Grillo.
Referees: Gerard E. of Reggio Calabria and Lopresti V. of Bagnara Calabria (RC).
