Bologna –
At the end of Game 5 of the LBA quarterfinals against Tortona, these were the words of coach Luca Banchi: “Authoritative performance, we were able to regenerate physical and nervous energies to give the game the right direction from the very first minutes. I think it’s fair to point out how the team throughout the entire series has tried to go beyond the difficulties that manifested themselves, until the eve and at the beginning of the series we seemed to be in an ideal direction but then life teaches that you have to know how to react to difficulties, some unpredictable others to which our opponents must be given credit. Tonight’s test repays us for the effort of wanting to be even in these moments the team we have been trying to become since day one. Tortona was able to run, there were moments when it was able to play in the open court and find congenial conclusions especially in the first half. I think a lot of it is related to the quality of our offense, we were coming off four games where our opponents almost always shot 50 percent from three-point range, and we I think in the series were just above 20. Our offense in Casale was sterile, our percentages increased the possibility of Tortona playing at the pace that is most congenial to them, tonight those usual percentages of theirs plummeted to much lower numbers.
We were good at playing sparingly on offense and carefully exploring advantages, we were able through defense to play at a more congenial offensive pace and we turned off their strategy of filling the area as much as they were able to do at a slower pace.”
“Lundberg’s injury is significant, which is unlikely to give him a chance to recover in this series. His path will keep him out from the start of the series with Venice, it is difficult to make predictions given the type of injury, in a path also made by restoration of condition.”
“I want to conclude with congratulations to our opponents for playing a series where they were always able to compete, we found a very warm environment in Casale. My wish is that the next Virtus-Tortona playoffs will be played on their new court, a club that has proven for the umpteenth time that it is a club on the rise and ambitious, that deserves to find a home and give further luster to Italian basketball because they are making important investments and recruiting passion and following. Our basketball needs top-notch facilities, the hope is that these two clubs are destined to have their home in the near future and reward the strong investments that are being made.”
