Cantù doesn’t give up and goes on to win over Reggio
Second day of the men’s top basketball series, which continues Sunday after the successes in the early games of Milan over Varese, Brescia over Trento, Virtus Bologna over Udine and Trieste over Napoli. At 12 p.m., in Desio, Acqua S. Bernardo Cantù, fresh from the drubbing (-40) in Trento, receives UNA Hotels Reggio Emilia, which in its debut settled another newly promoted team, Udine.
The game gets underway and the red-and-whites immediately run away on a 7-2 run, but are caught by Bortolani (5 points, with a bomb) and overrun by an Ajayi free. Cantù flies to +5 but then jams and goes down. 3-pointers by Vitali and Basile sealed a 20-all tie at the first break.
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Reggio gets off the blocks well and goes to +6 while Cantù relies heavily on shooting from distance with mixed fortunes. Priftis’s men stretch to +10, the white-blue put up a 9-0 run (there’s also a big dunk by Ballo) but Vitali and Severini, at the buzzer, bring the Emilians back to +6: at the long break it’s 47-41 host.
Reggio is a great team, and Cantù is a great team.
Once again the guests get off to a better start and the margin in their favor expands to +11, but Cantù is not tame: at halftime it is -2 and at the buzzer it is pegged back to its rivals on 61 even.
Fourth quarter with the teams bungling a bit’ in the beginning, then De Nicolao takes over for the overtake. Reggio struggles to score, Cantù takes off with the Sneed-Basile axis becoming a factor and getting to +8 with 1’30 to play. The red-and-whites need a miracle and they don’t get that far: on -2 De Nicolao chastises them again from distance for the final 83-78.
