Bologna –
Returning to the playoffs after 10 years, when in 2011-2012 it appeared in the semifinals with Milan starting from the sixth spot on the grid, Pesaro is not an unheard of name in Italian basketball: fourteen victories won during the regular season, crowned by a narrow blitz on the PalaBarbuto parquet for eighth place, the last available to get on the postseason train.
And now at this difficult threshold, against a Segafredo just crowned in Europe, Carpegna will pot Bologna’s desire to lengthen the series with its usual weapons: leader Carlos Delfino and center Tyrique Jones, among the heroes of the last heavy successes of the biancorossi. The American ended the regular season ranked second in scoring (20.5) behind only Amedeo Della Valle (21), touching in Naples yet another double-double of the season with 9 rebounds, just below the season average of 9.6 that hoisted him to the top of the specialty rankings. A total of 13 his double-doubles, here no one has done better than him, even coming close to averaging a double-double (13.5 points + 9.6 rebounds). With his latest 10 of 13 from the field Jones then touched 76.9 percent from two, closing in on the lead in this ranking as well, hoisted to 66.4 percent, just ahead of Jaiteh (64.4 percent). Delfino, on the other hand, is traveling at an average of 11.9 with 35.6% from three, but above all he remains the reference in the end of games and in heavy possessions: 40 years old next August, the Argentine is playing an average of 28 minutes and is the second best pesarese by rating. Besides them, Doron Lamb adds 12.9 points but also rose to 27 in the win over Treviso and is his best from the arc thanks to 45.3 percent. At the team level, the 30 two-point field goals in the Naples game also equaled the season record already set against Fortitudo on Day 16, confirming Carpegna always victorious when the percentage from the field touches 50 percent: it happened nine times this season and Coach Banchi’s troop always brought home the two points. In the last championship clash (96-77 Virtus at Vitrifrigo Arena) Pesaro ended up already in reserve after halftime, with the last numbers of a monumental Delfino in holding the fort, trying to involve his teammates in a battle that later turned out to be unequal also due to the absence of Vee Sanford.
