Bologna, February 29 –
At the end of the game against Valencia Basket, valid for Round 27 of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season, these were the words of coach Luca Banchi: “A very tough game as we expected, Valencia is always a very aggressive and physical team. Both teams came to this game with a lot of uncertainties and question marks related to a very short preparation. I think our team responded great to adversity, we had a joint effort that allowed us to control the game. First of all we celebrate the victory and then the ability to overturn the basket difference. Let’s not forget that we lost the Valencia game by eight points, so this is a positive aspect that is best emphasized since we came to this game with a lot of uncertainty and with Shengelia’s injury at the beginning. We responded as a team and gave a very mature performance.”
On the performance of individuals: “I think you would be doing a disservice to a team that delivered a high-profile performance, and the numbers bear that out. Valencia has one of the most effective and efficient defenses in the entire Euroleague, we managed to collect a good number of two-point shots. It is difficult even for high lineage teams to be able to do that as often as we did. We tried to take our attacks long aggressively, without a sharing of the ball as we did containing to only 8 the number of lost balls of which I think one or two are offensive fouls testify to a high profile quality of performance. If I named only a few I would be doing others a disservice, I think it was a manifestation of an important team performance.”
