Carpegna prosciutto, the opponent. Perkovic leads the attack of Forlì, Cinciarini gives experience

Taking advantage of the break in the championship due to the Coppa Italia Final Four scheduled for this weekend, the Carpegna Ham returns for the second consecutive weekend to play on its own parquet VitriFrigo Arena to recover the challenge against theUnieuro Forlì.

Coach's Men Spiro Leka will face a team seventh in the standings with 36 points, two more than VL, who however won six of their last seven matches. The head coach of the Romagna team is Antimo Martino, in his third year on this bench with which he reached the playoff final two years ago and the semifinal last year. The starting guard duo is composed of the foreign duo Demon Harper - Toni Perkovic, the latter absent in the first leg; Harper after a sparkling first phase of the tournament offensively (he scored 38 against Rimini in October), has dropped in the new year in terms of percentages, but is making himself available for rebounding (almost 5 per game) and assists, reaching 10 for the first time this season just last Sunday against Juvi Cremona. In the same match Perkovic instead did the job of the shooter, scoring 21 points and continuing his excellent season with an average of 15.

From the bench instead more experienced figures rise up such as Daniel Cinciarini, who will be welcomed by an atmosphere that is not exactly the best and Richard Tavernelli, seen in Tortona in the last five years.

In the wing spots the starters are usually Luke Pollone e Raphael Gaspardo, the latter has been regularly linked to VL every year but has never materialized, even though in the last outing Pollone was sent off the bench in favor of Tavernelli and the response was excellent; 14 points in 20 minutes with 5/5 from the field. Gaspardo also gave an excellent performance last Sunday, scoring 21 points and 7 rebounds, while less noticeable in the statistics but always full of utility are the performances of David "Dada" Pasture. The former Trento and Milan player, who dropped to Serie A2 in the 21/22 season, is averaging 6.6 points and 5.5 rebounds, offering quality minutes and substance whenever called upon to give the starters a breather.

Under the basket, the starting center completes the roster Daniel Skinny, employed just over 12 minutes per game by coach Martino but despite this author of very good performances (10 points and 9 rebounds in just 19 minutes two weeks ago in Vigevano), and as a replacement the former Pistoia Del Chiaro, who has seen his playing time drop sharply in recent weeks (36 minutes overall in the last six games) often in favor of a quintet without a true center.

Leonardo Selvatici