Virtus falls in Valencia, Luca Banchi: “Superficial”

Luca Banchi’s words after the loss to Valencia

Coch Luca Banchi spoke in a press conference after the loss to Valencia, which è won 79-71 over Virtus Bologna. "I think the defeat was due a lot to our superficiality,” he stressed. Congratulations to Valencia for coming back in the second half. We did not have the right intensityà in the first quarter. Then we played as I would have liked to see throughout the game. Instead the qualityà of our game è dropped, and 15 lost in the second half is heavy".

"Valencia è was great at seizing opportunities; we had down moments that at this level you can’t afford – added the coach of the bianconeri -. Every possession counts, the qualityà of shots, rebounds, accuracy, playing together. In the second quarter we did not respond as a team, and è the thing that hurts me most. Pajola suffered an injury, and we should have responded as a team to that as well with steps forward from everyone"

For Banchi, it wasn’t a matter of fatigue: "I’m not talking about fatigue, it’s not attributable what è happened to fatigue. We have sufficient experience and organization, beyond the merits of Valencia, which raised its aggressiveness, to respond differently on the field".

“I think Pajola and Hackett are always the ones who raise our defensive intensityà the ones who set the pace. Pajola’s injury è something that overexposes other players, I would have liked a different reaction. We had too many fumbles, we can’t compete at this level like this: in 20′ we had 15 fumbles, this è cost us a lot, even in defensive transition. What happens on the court must be an opportunity’for others to respond presently. When there’è so much pressure the ball passes from everyone’s hands: too many mistakes conditioned by our superficiality’" concluded Banchi.