Bologna, November 4 –
At the end of the game against Sanga Milano, valid for the sixth day of Techfind Serie A1, these are the words of coach Vincent: “We won a game after losing the last three, all very different games, we are happy for that and I am happy for the girls because they work well and put energy. I liked the ability to adapt to the opponent on the defense side, we struggled a lot more on offense to control the zone but this is the first time we had to play more against the zone, we have to adjust some things. We have difficulty when the defense is tough and aggressive, it was easier for us today. They have a Canadian who is very fast, maybe the fastest in the league, but she doesn’t shoot, so we have to defend and understand what the opponents are doing, adapt to five, for example on Iagupova against Mersin we did very well with help and blocks, she shot 28%. However, we have to do that against everybody, defending on Iagupova or Mabrey is different, for the long ones making a drop is easy, however on Mabrey we have to be aggressive and this is a difficulty we have to work on. With these teams we have to find a way to lower their quality on offense, we had a good game missing some help on the side of the ball that cost 15 points, not to mention transitions and offensive rebounding. With these elements we are close to these teams, but we struggle playing away from home against aggressive opponents and with referees who don’t blow the whistle. Let’s wait for the national break and see how the girls come back, we have a really tough schedule, Olbis got hurt and I left her out. She, Cecilia, Francesca and Iliana will play in the national team and we have to play without training. When we come back the game against Campobasso will be really difficult for us, my job is to adapt to all teams and all days.”
Alessandra Orsili also stopped in the mixed zone after the game, “It seems like it could have been an easy game instead it was a challenging game for us, mentally we promised ourselves that we would start strong given the last few defeats. We were able to shoot more, all the girls on the roster played and we spared those who play more on other occasions. We are all happy and satisfied, we worked a lot on the zone which is not something we get to play often in the game. Now we have the nationals break and we will come back even more energized and focused on the things we work on every day in practice. We know very well that defense can look like our weak point from past games and we are focusing on the concepts we coach during the week, we want to stay conscientious about the game plan and defensive organization. When we return from break we will play Campobasso, a tough field and we had proof of that last year. The environment and atmosphere are very hot, we will try to rest as much as possible, it will be an important game because they are a prepared team.”
