Virtus Loses at Home to Trieste; Mumbrú Lashes Out at Referee Baldini: “Unacceptable”
Pallacanestro Trieste won the Serie A basketball game on the sixth matchday, played on Virtus Bologna’s home court: The Giuliani defeated the Felsinei 100-93, rallying from a 14-point deficit thanks to a 54-point second half, compared to the Vu Nere’s 38. Galloway was the top scorer of the night with 24 points; McDermott (23 points and 8 rebounds), Lajae Jones (21 points and 9 rebounds), and Colbey Ross (18 points and 6 assists) also posted strong numbers. For Virtus, Alston was the top scorer with 16 points.
After the game, Virtus coach Alex Mumbrú made no secret of his dissatisfaction not only with the result but also with the officiating, singling out one of the three referees, Lorenzo Baldini, in particular: “Congratulations to Trieste on a good performance, but we faced enormous difficulties, since every time we tried to defend, we were called for a foul.”
“I’m new to this league and have great respect for it,” he explained, “but I find it unacceptable that in the third quarter, a team with such a short rotation had only one foul charged against them, while the standard applied to us was completely different.” The 17 extra free throws were decisive in a neck-and-neck game. I’d been warned that referee Baldini didn’t have a good relationship with Virtus; I show respect but I demand respect—and Baldini himself didn’t address me with the respect I deserved.”
“This is the first time in my career that I’ve spoken like this,” added the Catalan coach, “and I want to make it clear that I’m not here to complain—I would have said exactly the same things even if we’d won. What happened tonight is unacceptable. At the start of the third quarter, we’d planned to target Ross, who already had three fouls, but he wasn’t called for a single foul. I kept telling my guys to play tough defense, but every time there was contact, a whistle blew.”
“On offense, the team moved the ball well and we scored 93 points, but on defense we were effectively prevented from playing the way we wanted to. While I received a technical foul against Zalgiris for a personal mistake, tonight I simply pointed out that what I was seeing on the court was simply unacceptable,” concluded a furious Mumbrú.
