>Second consecutive home success for the Civitus Vicenza Basketball who beat the titled Novipiù Monferrato 73-69, who have been in A1 and A2 for a long time in recent years. The hero of the day comes from Da Campo who, 15 seconds from the siren, gets the +3 with his first field goal of the evening. Then he commits a tactical foul and sends Pepper to the line who only scores 1. Gasparin with 2 out of 2 shots seals the prestigious red and white victory.
The race
The novelty is Gasparin in the quintet in place of Cucchiaro. Marangoni still out with a sprained ankle. At the start Ucles and Almansi start with a lightning-fast 4-0 in the first minute, Pepper responds and the start is lively. Nwohuocha recovers the offensive rebound and dunks powerfully at the basket, Carr’s triple from the corner makes it 17-10 for a convincing Civitus. The Spaniard from Vicenza also steals the ball in defense and runs on the counterattack to show his team the way. Nwohuocha smashes again and Gasparin steals the ball: it’s 29-19 in the 13th minute. Then comes a break of 0-7 from the Piedmontese, Almansi puts a damper on the duel that takes place with Rupil. Novipiù also had the ball to overtake, but Vicenza held on in defense and with Gasparin scoring and shining in attack they kept their head ahead at half-time.
Martinoni starts strong with mid-range shots, but Ucles responds with the same coin. The match becomes tougher and the percentages drop, Civitus manages to keep the lead.
In the last quarter the match gets nervous, with technical fouls for the guests and both teams hitting the line. Almansi (top score of the evening with 17 points) keeps the hosts at +6, but Martinoni brings his team back to -1 from long range and Pepper scores the first guest overtaking (61-62) with 5 minutes to go. A point-to-point battle begins: Gasparin scores the +4 on a shot stop, then a technical foul also for the berici and the last two minutes with bated breath tied (68-68).
Da Campo, 15 seconds before the siren, guesses his first field goal, it’s +3. Then he commits a tactical foul and sends Pepper to the line who only scores 1. Gasparin seals the victory with 2 out of 2
Interviews
Ghirelli: “Very important victory against a very strong team, in a week that was not easy due to the long trip and the defeat in Ragusa, today we were a team for 40 minutes. Da Campo made the final triple but he was also good from a defensive point of view.”
Corbani: “Good match for the public and well refereed, in the end it was the episodes that decided and Da Campo was good at putting in the decisive bomb.”
Scoreboard
Civitus Pallacanestro Vicenza – Novipiù Monferrato Basket 73-69 (21-15, 18-22, 16-14, 18-18)
Civitus Basketball Vicenza:
Gian Paolo Almansi 17 (4/6, 1/8), Federico Ucles Belmonte 14 (7/14, 0/1), Giovanni Gasparin 13 (4/7, 1/1), Curtis Nwohuocha 8 (4/8, 0 /0), Nicholas Carr 7 (2/2, 1/1), Mattia Da campo 6 (0/2, 1/2), Valerio Cucchiaro 6 (1/3, 0/1), Lorenzo Vanin 2 (1/3, 0/0), Pietro Cecchin 0 (0/0, 0/0), Edoardo Zovico 0 (0/0, 0/0), Alessandro Beggio 0 (0/0, 0/0), Tommaso Presutto 0 (0/0, 0/0) Free throws: 15 / 18 – Rebounds: 31 3 + 28 (Curtis Nwohuocha 8) – Assists: 8 (Giovanni Gasparin 6)
Novipiù Monferrato Basketball:
Dalton Pepper 18 (4/8, 2/6), Niccolo Martinoni 17 (6/11, 1/5), Marco Rupil 12 (4/7, 0/5), Jakub Wojciechowski 8 (2/6, 1/5 ), Simone Vecerina 6 (1/7, 0/0), Umberto Stazzonelli 5 (0/0, 0/0), Francesco Guerra 3 (0/1, 1/2), Lamine Camara mahamed 0 (0/1, 0/0), Mamoudou Dia 0 (0/0, 0/0), Pietro Basta 0 (0/0, 0/0), Francesco Marcucci 0 (0/0, 0/0), Mario Bertaina 0 (0/ 0, 0/0) Free throws: 20 / 24 – Rebounds: 34 9 + 25 (Jakub Wojciechowski 10) – Assists: 8 (Simone Vecerina 3)
Source Pallacanestro Vicenza 2012
