CIVIL. All true. All indescribably real: the leaders of the list fell at the PalaGesteco. To rip her scalp off a fantasy, mythological book Gesteco.
In fact, coach Pillastrini’s team was epic in overcoming the first strength of the championship. Beating her with his weapons: physicality, explosiveness. Adding an avalanche of heart. That served the ducals to beat the Tuscans twice: first by going to the double advantage, in the first half. Then coming back, in the final, and slapping an 18-0 able to definitively bring down the beast, the dragon. A monster who, as such, had started the match: Copeland on fire and immediately 5-12 guest.
May day! Minute for yellow and blue. The break benefits the ducal cause. And it releases the Miani effect: the former Codroipese is striking, from the paint and then from the perimeter (10-12). So he puts up a defensive wall. With him are the rest of his team mates who, with Battistini, manage to equalize in the 8th minute (14-14). Varnado reopens the gap from 6.75m, with the complicity of Pollone, who also scored from outside. Rota responds to him, with the same medicine, but it is Battistini’s two-handed solo session that once again restores the score to partial balance (19-20). Show your muscles, the yellow-blue number 12.
And the rest of his repertoire when, in the 14th minute, he finds the triple of the first ducal advantage: 22-20. What is Pistoia doing? Loses the ball, Rota punishes. Boom, the bomb explodes. The PalaGesteco together with her. She warms up pedaling, on the sidelines, riding an exercise bike, Clarke: for the moment she can wait. Because on the parquet Battistini fixes Mouaha’s attempt, Dell’Agnello realizes a chocolate from Rota (31-25).
The guests, stunned, bewildered, cash in. They suffer the thrust of Pepper (35-26), lose the compass by giving possession to the ducals: the ball ends up in Mouaha. The Cameroonian, alone, tries. Why not: he jumps, explosive, and crushes the 37-26. We go to the interval, someone begins to believe it, in the press box. But there is a full time to play. A third quarter, in particular, which begins with the coach booed for simulation in Mouaha.
The episode unnerves the environment: Pistoia takes advantage of it by slipping to -4. The whistles are coming, -2. Miani keeps his i alive, tow Varnado, sportella. Wheatle is -1? He’s there, always Miani to reply from the arc. But the tension is palpable, even on the bench: coach Pilla is punished, Pistoia overtakes (44-45). Things are going badly for the eagles, if it weren’t for the triple driven by “Jack” Dell’Agnello. With 10′ to go, the match hangs in the balance, however inertia is in the hands of the guests. Who run away on +9 with Saccaggi. It’s 23′ and the challenge seems to have taken a precise direction. Which Pistoia, however, does not seem to want to follow.
So Cassese and Pepper’s triples will reopen the fight. Numbing bombs, whose effect is to stupefy Varnado & co. Also because, under the basket, Miani is unbeatable. He builds a wall, the Friulian: fiddles and delivers to Rota, -1. He recovers again, pitch infringement. Do you want to see that… overtaking is coming. And +3 with Dell’Agnello. Wheatle tries to equalize, the ball goes out. And Pistoia goes crazy, gets technicians, sinks. Arms to the sky. An “increasingly blue” sky, to the irrepressible joy of those present, to the notes of Rino Gaeatano. Indeed, more and more yellow.
GESTECO CIVIDALE – GIORGIO TESI GROUP PISTOIA 65 – 58
14-17, 37-27, 47-49
UEB GESTECO CIVIDALE Miani 12, Cassese 4, Rota 16, Mouaha 2, Battistini 11, Clarke, Pepper 11, Nikolic, Dell’Agnello 9. Not entered: Micalich, D’Onofrio, Bonello. Coach: Pillastrini.
GIORGIO TESI GROUP PISTOIA Biagini, Delle Rosa 6, Copeland 17, Saccaggi 13, Magro 2, Aligni, Pollone 3, Varnado 7, Wheatle 10. Not entered: Biagini, Farinon. Coach: Brienza.
Referees: Boscolo Nale of Venice, Perocco of Treviso, Tallon of Bologna.
Note Cividale: 13/37 for two-point shooting, 11/29 for three-pointers and 6/10 for free throws. Pistoia: 12/30 for two-point shooting, 9/34 for three-pointers and 7/10 for free throws. Out for 5 fouls: Copeland. Expelled: Della Rosa.