Too much Tortona for Estra. Pistoia is never in the game. Salvation is increasingly difficult

Bertram Derthona 94Extra 68

BERTRAM DERTHONA TORTONA: Kuhse 15, Baldasso 15, Weems 13, Gorham 7, Kamagate 8; Candi 9, Denegri 13, Biligha 1, Zerini 2, Severini 9, Farias 2, Vital ne. Coach De Raffaele.

EXTRA PISTOIA: Forrest 13, Saccaggi 12, Ceron 5, Kemp 13, Cooke 16; Benetti 6, Paschall 3, Boglio, Della Rosa n/a, Agostini n/a. Coach Okorn.

Referees: Bartoli, Borgo, Catani.

Partial: 32-17, 54-34, 72-50.

Story of a game never born. Estra returns with nothing done from the away game in Casale Monferrato, where Bertram Derthona showed off all its skills and especially the differences in the squad with a very small Pistoia. Okorn's team does what it can. In Naples it perhaps did its best, reviving the championship and staying hooked on the salvation train, but now it is showing all its shortcomings in the face of high-caliber opponents. And Tortona is one of these. Without Della Rosa, with Paschall having a bad day and with Forrest hounded all over the field, Estra quickly gave up. The arrival of Allen and that of another foreigner will lengthen the rotations of a team that desperately needs more solutions to be able to think of believing in salvation until the very last minute of the last day.

The news. Tortona takes a handful of minutes to take control of the action and direct the game in their direction. Aggressive defense and an attack that scores with surgical precision are the weapons with which the home team extinguishes the dreams of the red and whites. Pistoia is incapable of any reaction, soft in defense and in attack the ball does not move and the basket is a chimera. Halfway through the quarter there is a 10 point gap (17-7) that becomes 16 with 2' to go (27-11) and even 20 with 1' to go (31-11). In the second period Estra tries to react but the maximum effort made is a minus 12 (38-26) that has the sole purpose of waking up Tortona who immediately takes control of the game and stretches again by crushing Pistoia in defense and leaving them no space in attack and at the end of the quarter there is again a 20 point gap (54-34).

The game has been on ice for a while and there is not much to report also because Tortona is a steamroller and passes at will over a Pistoia too weak physically and mentally to put up any resistance. Coach De Raffale's team runs rampant, reaching a plus of 27 (64-37) halfway through the third quarter and essentially remains unchanged until the end of the quarter (72-50). Garbage time started practically from the second quarter and in the last quarter there is only to report the agony of Pistoia which extends further. The red and whites with 3' to go reach minus 30 (88-58) suffering a hard lesson largely deserved because losing in Tortona is not news, but losing without reacting and committing an infinite series of errors, this is news because it cannot happen.

Maurizio Innocenti