Bologna –
Damocleo the league of Sassari until the beginning of February: as long as its participation in the Eurocup, group G, was still in being, the Sardinian team struggled terribly to find the continuity necessary to remain within the play off group. After the last European drubbing, a not very edifying 67-118 suffered at home against Bruges, Restivo’s team was able to string together 4 victories in 6 games, falling only with Schio and the surprise Lucca, and also sneaking in a resounding victory against Empoli, breaking the 100-point ceiling. Thanks to this string of victories, the team has been able to keep itself glued to the play-off train, only two points away, counting on several games to recover.
With the second best attack in the league capable of producing an average of 75 points per game, Sassari also boasts the two best scorers in the entire league. The leader of the “troublemakers” is Lucas, 25.7 and 3.6 assists in 38.5 minutes of average, who was the only one to oppose the victory of the Black V’s with her 24 points. Chasing her is the other american Shepard with 28.2 and 18 rebounds on average, collected in 11 games as opposed to her 13. With a similar outside-pivot axis, then, Sassari has considerable firepower, but the problems are registered in the defensive half of the court with 80.5 average points conceded, lowered to 77 in the last six outings, also facing very good teams from the offensive point of view. The 17.5 lost balls per game and just 33.7 rebounds are a problem.
The first game was solved by the Allen-Dojkic duo, respectively with a double-double of 21 and 10 while 24 were the points of the Croatian, who opposed the performance of the two Americans Lucas and Shepard. The area was the center of the contention between the two teams but on Saturday Virtus can also count on an extra Turner who, in the first round, could boast few games with her teammates.
