SerieA QFs: Trenkwalder & Sassari take G1

The Italian SerieA finished the 30-game regular season on Sunday and began their quarterfinals Thursday. The quarterfinals will be a best-of-seven series and will conclude with Game 7s, if they are necessary, on May 21st and 22nd. The match-ups include (Team, final position): Cimberio Varese (1) – Umana Venezia (8); Banco di Sardegna Sassari (2) – Lenovo Cantu (7); Acea Roma (3) – Trenkwalder Reggio Emilia (6);EA7 Emporio Armani Milano (4) – Montepaschi Siena (5).

Acea Roma – Trenkwalder Reggio Emilia, 58:70
Trenkwalder got all the advantage over their hosts that they needed in the first frame as they outscored them 5:14 and then spent the rest of the contest keeping out front to pick up their first win in their best-of-seven series on the road. Game 2 will be played Saturday in Rome, with Games 3 and 4 shifting to Reggio Emilia on May 13 & May 15.

The hosts only tallied five in the first 10, with the first three coming from charity tosses within the first three minutes. Trenkwalder ran off nine unanswered before Acea got their first basket when Gani Lawal dropped in a deuce in the paint to bring the score to 5:11. Troy Bell hit a triple to close out the scoring in the first frame at 5:14. Trenkwalder got 7 from Michele Antonutti during the first frame.

After the guests got a pair of three-balls from Filloy Demian and Troy Bell, and Luigi Datome threw down a dunk for Roma on his was to 11 during the quarter, the hosts ran off nine straight to bring the score to 16:23 with six minutes to play in the half. Trenkwalder hit five straight near the end of the half to push their advantage back to 11. Aleksander Czyz got an assist from Peter Lorant for a dunk to bring the Roma deficit to under double digits as they headed into the halftime intermission, 23:32.

The visitors built a 16-point lead with a 2:9 run to open the second half, putting the score at 45:61. Acea countered immediately with eight of their own to pull to within eight, 33:41, and then Trenkwalder put up nine to get back up by 15, 35:50. As the buzzer marked the end of the third 10, the guests held a 13-point margin, 39:52.

As the final stanza began, the hosts came out with a sense of urgency and put down yet another big scoring run, this time they outscored their guests 14:1 and knotted the score at 53 mid-way through the frame. Keeping with the pattern, Trenkwalder ran off the next 14 to get back up, 53:67, with a minute to play. The clubs spent the rest of the game exchanging baskets, with the guests coming out on top as time ran out on Game 1 with a 12-point decision, 58:70. Donnell Taylor tallied 11 during the final period for the guests.

Taylor led the way for Trenkwalder with 17 points, Try Bell added 15 and Andrea Cinciarini contributed 10 to the win.

Datome was game-high with 19 points for Acea Roma, Jordan Taylor added 12 and Gani Lawal pulled down a 11P/11R double/double.

Banco di Sardegna Sassari – Lenovo Cantu, 90:70
As was the case in the other contest of the day, the Sassari-Cantu game was decided in the first quarter when the hosts put up a 16-point margin by the end of the first 10 and held on to pick up the first win of the series. They’ll go for their second win on Saturday, also at home, and then will head to Cantu for Games 3 and 4 on May 13 & 15.

Sassari used a 10:2 run through the heart of the first 10 to build a 16:7 advantage, then scored the last 10 points to get up 16, 28:12. Sani Becirovic knocked down eight in the last two minutes to lead the hosts’ scoring flurry and Peter Aradori scored 10 of Cantu’s 12.

Mid-way through the second quarter the guests put up a 2:12 run to cut the margin to 34:26. Sassari tallied the next seven to extend their lead to 15, 41:26 with two minutes left in the half. Drake Diener got an assist from brother Travis and knocked down a triple to send the contest to the mid-game break with Sassari up 48:31. The three-ball gave Diener 10 for the quarter.

T. Diener and Manuel Vanuzzo hit three-pointers to extend the lead to 20, 54:34. For the rest of the frame the clubs traded baskets with Cantu cutting the margin to 15 and ending up back at 17 when the quarter ended at 70:53. Cantu’s Joe Ragland tallied seven during the third 10.

Cantu couldn’t cut the margin during the fourth and Sassari ended up pushed their advantage to 20 at the end of the game, securing Game 1.

D. Diener was game-high with 20 points for Sassari, Becirovic added 16, T. Diener contributed 13, and Tony Easley hit 11.

Ragland was high-man for Cantu with 14, Alex Tyus and Peter Aradori dropped in 10 each.

Week 30 Italy SerieA Matches[matches league_id=5 match_day=30 template=summary dateformat=”M j, Y”]

Italy SerieA Final Standings[standings league_id=5 show_website=false template=nolink]