Virtus Bologna in semifinals, now there's Olimpia: Dusko Ivanovic candid about Toko Shengelia

With a final score of 86-84, Virtus Bologna won game-5 against Reyer Venezia and is thus the last team to qualify for the basketball championship playoff semifinals. The Black Vu’s will now face Olimpia Milano, while on the other side of the scoreboard are Trapani and Brescia. At the end of the game, Dusko Ivanovic hotly talked about his feelings.

“It’was a very difficult game, but we were ready – explained the Montenegrin coach.”

I have to give kudos to Reyer because they played a great game until the end, we had to put all the intensity we could, and all the patience in the difficult moments, to be able to win this game and this series”.

One of the decisive men was Toko Shengelia, who despite his precarious physical condition and almost 35 minutes on the bench was thrown into the fray midway through the last period, with Reyer looking like it could take the lead: 7 points in just 3 minutes total allowed them to overturn the score and give Virtus the win. “I had doubts and I didn’t want to play him – admitted Ivanovic – but in the final he was valuable in attack. It was not only him who did well, I also want to compliment our guards”.

This is how the most balanced series among the four of the first round of playoffs ends, respecting the court factor until the end: in fact, Virtus had won the first two games at home, 90-85 and 77-75, only to give in 89-82 and 84-78 at Taliercio. In the fifth game, Reyer, led by Jordan Parks’s 18 points and Tyler Ennis’s 18, seemed to be able to surprise the hosts, saved, however, by Daniel Hackett&#8217s 21 and Shengelia’s impact in the final.