Final Eight Coppa Italia: Napoli recovers and folds Reggio Emilia in overtime and goes to final

Final Eight Italian Cup: Napoli comes back and folds Reggio Emilia all'overtime and goes to the final

The second semifinal of the Italian Cup Final Eight at the Inalpi Arena in Turin saw Generazione Vincente Napoli win the final first by hooking up with Unahotels Reggio Emilia on a tie at the end of regulation and then dominating the overtime. The final score è 87-78 for Igor Milicic’s Campani, who will challenge the Italian champions of Olimpia Milano in the final.

Reggio Emilia stretched, then got caught up and then stretched again in the first quarter to end it ahead 24-14. In the second quarter, the Emilians stayed ahead but Napoli nibbled away at the margin, so much so that at halftime the score was 41-39.

After the Campani’s immediate tie at the beginning of the third quarter, Unahotels went back ahead by 8 lengths but when the last ten minutes were left the score è on 58-53. In the’last quarter maximum lead for Reggio, +12, and with just over three minutes to the buzzer the Emilians were up 71-63.

But here the unbelievable happens: Dimitris Priftis’ team puts in only two free throws, instead Igor Milicic’s team makes a comeback and Michal Sokolowski scores the tying triple with 19 seconds left: 73-73! The blow è very hard for Reggio Emilia, which collapses, while Napoli, which had never been ahead, takes the lead 14-5 and goes on to win in an overtime with no history.

For Generation Winning, Jacob Pullen scored 21 points, Tyler Ennis added 18 points and 13 rebounds, Markel Brown 16 points, Sokolowski 15 points and 11 rebounds, for Unahotels 15 points each for Darion Atkins and Matteo Chillo.