“Let’s celebrate a minute and between two we are already thinking about the next one,” said Iacopo Squarcina after Sunday’s post-competition in Rieti. Already, in these playouts that will last a maximum of ten days, with the beautiful eventual Wednesday 2, there is just no time to enjoy the victories. Edilnol did not even do it at PalaSojourner after the +4 materialized almost by a miracle in an absurd last minute between controversial whistles, turnovers, missed shots and one, that of Ursulo D’Almeida on the fly on offensive rebound, ended up in the basket for the decisive counter-overtaking. Today we play again (duo at 7 pm) and there are several things to put in place at the rossoblù home to try to return to Biella on 2-0. The first is called continuity: «We did well in the first two quarters – says the coach, retracing with his mind the initial sprint up to +25 -. We took a good pace in attack even if we were less present in defense, with many open shots of the opponents who did not enter. We expected their reaction after the break, but we weren’t ready enough. Then, in the end, nothing would fit. When it is not possible to make a basket, for a young team like ours that takes confidence from the attack, it is difficult ». Biella had closed the first twenty minutes with over 50 percent shooting, but finished with 38.7%: the statistics say that from the long rest onwards, just five baskets entered from the field and luckily the hands from the line of Carroll and Laganà did not tremble.
The second is called presence under the scoreboards: even in the best moment of the escape, the home team made the very big voice in rebound in attack. With the longs crushed by the size of De Laurentiis and Ponziani, the best in the fundamental were Miaschi and again Carroll, who threw himself on the balls spat out by the iron in the fiery final. But more is needed because Rieti may have understood a lesson from race-1: if there is a red and blue weak point on which to sink the shots, it is under the basket, while few decent balls have arrived and Wilson himself, to get to altitude. 15, it was necessary to build shots independently.
The third key is rhythm: as Squarcina knows, Edilnol is scarier if it runs. And the opponent has very short breath. On Sunday they took turns in directing in three: Tommasini in the first game since February, after a knee surgery (zero points and victory shot 4 ” from the siren on the iron), and the two veterans from the coronavirus Sanguinetti and Sabatino. The first had a respiratory crisis in the last minute: «It was similar to the one Stefanelli had when he came back from quarantine – said the Kienergia coach Alessandro Rossi – but we all got scared. Sabatino spent the final period throwing up ». Not only that, on the decisive action, trying to defend Laganà, he fell badly on the parquet, forced to leave the field supported by arms for the blow to the hip. “I still have to thank my parents for the game, the first real one in a month,” he addednto Rossi. And Squarcina: «Rieti doesn’t deserve to be here». But they’re the bloody playouts. And today the pleasantries will remain in the bag.