Virtus Illusion Fall: Monaco Passes

VIRTUS 80 AS MONACO 86

VIRTUS: Cordinier 8, Belinelli 11, Pajola 14, Visconti black, Shengelia 15, Hackett 2, Grazulis 5, Morgan 7, Polonara, Diouf 8, Alkele black, Tucker 10. Coach Ivanovic.

AS MONACO: Blossomgame 10, Papagiannis 11, Diallo 10, Corneilie 5, Jaiteh ne, Montiejunas 11, Tarpey. Begarin 1, Brown ne, Strazel 14, Calathes, James 24. All, Spanoulis.

Referees: Peruga. Dragojevic, Bittner.

Footnotes: partial scores 26-18; 49-41; 62-56. Two-pointers: Bologna 9/23; Monaco 26/39. Three-pointers: 13/24; 5/18. Free throws: 23/30; 19/25. Rebounds: 34; 31.

The shortened rotations due to the absences of Will Clyburn and Ante Zizic do not allow the Virtus to celebrate with a victory a performance that was excellent until the end of the first half and then slowly but steadily declined. There are still many positive points, see the signals that came from Rayjon Tucker, but at these levels you cannot give the opponents the advantage of not having the necessary autonomy for the entire game. The Black V starts strong and the poor percentage of free throws of the Monaco shows how even the French were surprised by the motivation of the black and whites who after 12' are ahead on 39-18. Thanks also to an avalanche of contrary whistles, which would have made even the biblical Job lose his patience, the guests manage to sew up to -6 (47-41) with Segafredo who, when they enter the locker room for the long break, have 4 players with 3 personal fouls on their backs, while Toko Shegelia and the captain Marco Belinelli have 2. The gap between the two teams will narrow to 4 lengths (60-56) and it is here that the Virtussina fans raise the temperature of the arena, but it is not enough to avoid the collapse.

With two consecutive triples Mike James brings the game back to a tie (66-66) with 6'27” left to play and from here on the game enters a chaotic phase with the two teams starting to chase each other.

A triple of Belinelli, after the Juventus captain had made a 1/2 from the free throw line, it is worth 71-68. Bologna has no alternatives and relies on Beli, while on the other side the danger is widespread and so with 1'51” Stazzel with a three-point play nails the score at 71-75.

Shenghelia makes 2/2 free throws, but responds immediately blossomgame who then also stops the Georgian forward and then from the free throw line is James to secure the victory for his team. On Sunday they go to Sassari, with the team having to recover the energy spent knowing that at the moment there will be no reinforcements from the market.