Attilio Caja makes no drama and sends a message to Avellino

It will be the PalaDozza that will give the verdict on the team that will join Verona in the playoff semifinals, after the 3-1 thrashing by the Venetians in Brindisi. This time Avellino does not concede comebacks and, with a devastating 19-2 partial in the third quarter, nips in the bud the hopes of Fortitudo, whose attempt to recover remains little more than a mirage.

The lineup coached by Attilio Caja thus wastes the double match point in Irpinia, although the coach of the Emilian team himself does not make dramas: “Congratulations to Avellino, see you Sunday in Bologna. We deserved on the field to have Game 5 at home. We did what we had to do, and so did Avellino. Was the exit from the locker room decisive? Whatever, we will try to do better in Bologna.”

The PalaDozza, now, is called upon to turn into the decisive weapon for Fortitudo. A facility that had already shown its specific weight during the regular season, helping to build that marked defensive identity and that +168 points differential that had made Effe one of the most solid teams in the entire A2. Bologna had ended the regular season in third place, behind Scafati (already promoted) and Pesaro, surrendering the second step of the podium due to unfavorable direct clashes.

It is worth remembering that, on the eve of the playoffs, the artificial intelligence projections surveyed on the eve of the tournament had indicated precisely Fortitudo as the team best equipped to go all the way, with an estimated 35 percent chance of promotion. Avellino, by contrast, was credited with a paltry 1 percent. Numbers, evidently, do not always tell the whole story: on Sunday at PalaDozza the last chapter of this series will be written, with the Effe called upon to overturn a prediction that, on the court, has already turned out to be far more balanced than expected.