Bologna –
At the end of the game against Baskonia, valid for the last day of the Turkish Airlines Euroleague regular season, these were the words of coach Luca Banchi: “It was a game in which for 20 minutes we played with great intensity and high level of concentration. We knew that Baskonia would come in their best shape, with Howard showing from the start along with Miller-Mcintyre that they were in a good night. Both teams were prepared for such an intense game, but obviously our third period affected the game and we allowed them to score 21 points and that gave them the confidence to get to the end where small details changed the game. We are very disappointed, but we must not shift our focus from what we did for a whole season, 34 games in the regular season that gave us a chance to have a play-in. It’s time to shift our focus to the next game and to be at the level of such an important game.”
“I don’t know if there can be a single correctable detail to make certain game endings have a different ending. Each one is a story in itself, the fact remains that certain types of defeats somehow affect the morale and confidence of the team. Tonight the recriminations are related to what we could have done for Baskonia not to recover so quickly that gap we had managed to create, especially in a second period made of great intensity, defensive focus and offensive precision. I don’t want to get to those last possessions, where there are recriminations of many kinds, Jordan’s free rather than Howard’s obvious foul on Abass. We didn’t even manage to get a whistle when there was a clear will on their part to foul, nevertheless we didn’t even manage to earn the respect of that when vice versa especially in the first 20 minutes what we saw in terms of yardage against Hackett and Pajola is unacceptable, to then see Shengelia treated under the basket like that. It’s heavy to take, the feeling is that in the first 20 minutes they had gone to hit the sources of our game. When you try to attack Howard and you do it with a blatant mismatch, Abass playing back to the basket and fouling to not give him a chance to finish and they don’t whistle. That created frustration and nervousness that went to the detriment of the quality of his game. Above all it created the conditions for them in the open court to find those baskets that were instrumental in recovering the tear in a very short time, for us lethal because we had expended so much energy and effort to build that treasure that we stoned too quickly. A great night by Howard and McIntyre, we spent so much in terms of physical and nervous energy and we should have forced them to play on half court.”
“Certainly it is a period in which we collect much less than we deserve, today we should be proud that we have a chance to continue. We look behind us and read names of teams that on the eve were accredited in terms of ambition, budget and prospects. Let us not forget that this is Virtus’ second season in the Euroleague, after a first season we collect one at a tenth place that we obviously file with many recriminations, but which testifies that this is a team that will put on the field objective data related to the competitiveness of the team, related to the corporate strategy and the response of the public. This is a serious, healthy organization with a city and a fan base behind it that is giving incredible support. The atmosphere in this building deserved yet another victory, and we are all extremely bitter. After the game with Munich and Panathinaikos we were capable of a performance at the level of the top teams in this competition where unfortunately the important success for us and our fans did not come.”
