Istanbul, April 16 –
After the away win on the Efes court, valid for the EuroLeague play-in, Coach Banchi spoke this way in the press conference, “I am proud. We were solid and determined. We chose to embrace this opportunity. with everything we have built in a long season. Great respect for Efes, but we really deserved to win tonight and have another game on Friday. We’re one win away from the playoffs, moving forward. At the level of games like this every single possession counts, and all the players can change the game. We have the potential to win in Vitoria. We don’t have experience with play-ins, partly because this is the first time they have been played. Tonight we saw what it means. You play with less lucidity, more lost balls, the body language was that of two teams that wanted to win. We both put maximum energy on the court, and we were a little bit better than they were. From the last bars of the first quarter and in the second I had the feeling that we could close with a more significant lead, but there were horrible calls. But that kind of defense gave us a chance to dig a groove in the first quarter. And the quick comeback from -11 gave everyone a sense of being in tune with the game.
