Champions League, Treviso Basket defeated in Riga on the siren

RIGA. Finished sugar water? Certainly in the glass of TvB there is a lot of bitterness, perhaps digestive ones but with a bad taste. And to pour the liquid is Jalen Riley, an American guard who at the sound of the siren and with a suspected violation of steps slips the retina of the Nutribullet with the triple that keeps the VEF alive and almost certainly condemns the Nutribullet to the caudine forks of the play-ins of January.

It is the worst epilogue for Treviso, which even in the silence of the majestic Riga Arena armored for a pandemic, with just five hundred people inside due to the terrible outbreak of Covid-19 that developed in the Baltic country in the last two months, expresses a basketball worthy of this name after Saturday’s bad home performance against Pesaro. But it is not enough to bring a smile back to the Treviso dressing room or to restore victory to a team that once again fails to maintain the necessary concentration.

Looking back into the past, it almost looks like the TvB of twelve months ago. The one who got lost in the second half had not even forgotten some internal offensive schemes in the locker room, contenting herself with shooting from the bow, as if basketball were a shooting range.

The defeat in Latvia matures well before that murderous blow by Riley: the smears of Sims do not count so much that in the break of the second quarter (won 28-17 by his team) leaves on the iron two free on unsportsmanlike and then a dunk already made ; the problem is that 0/4 from 3 in the opening of the second half, with too much haste to score from a distance (wrongly, of course) and zero patience to build something approaching. It is true that the defense of the VEF, at times more similar to a wrestling team than to a Bcl team, does not allow for large stretches of space to Sims in post and that Akele runs into the worst of evenings in a very good season so far; however it is absurd that the Nutribullet experiences a nightmare third quarter in which the previously built +9 is blown away by the tenacity of the Baltics who apply physicality and the abundance of centimeters and kilos in the best way, attacking the opponent and creating situations of danger in the area.

Rebuilding a game that seemed to have been won and that instead gets complicated is always an unlikely undertaking. Menetti notices this at 31st when Bortolani runs into an avoidable unsportsmanlike that allows the hosts to put their nose ahead after more than halfway through the last previous match (55-53). To complicate the picture there is also Sims who gets the foul whistle twice in attack, sitting down after reaching the fourth personal penalty: without the area totem and with an already complex foul situation, the mission-victory appears impossible. Also because, after the flare-ups of Bortolani, who at least in attack is forgiven, there is not enough synchrony in defense and there is a lack of sagacity in the management of some possessions.

When Akele is forced to momentarily raise the white flag for an elbow in the front of Gulbis on which the backhoe closes his eyes, Menetti takes refuge in the smallball with Sokolowski from 4 tactical and zone defense: revisable choices, immediately punctured by Curry (triple) and Miska who bring the VEF to the maximum advantage (66-61).

It seems over, with two and a half minutes on the clock no one would bet on a resurrection of TvB. Which instead happens, but only thanks to the Russell-Jones couple, two who know each other quite well given the common past in the Crailsheim Merlins: the play is transformed compared to the poor performance of Saturday and pushes the transition by finding baskets or fouls, always converted into two points in the bezel; the long man, even if at times exaggerating, closes the area with a double throw and is ready even in the offensive area by converting the mistakes of his teammate.

2 seconds from the gong Weezy finds Ate’s foul: the pocket director scores 2/2 and there are those who are already hoping for extra time. Too bad that 2 seconds are enormous in basketball, as Ron Curry and Jalen Riley demonstrate, the first with the millimeter pass in the corner and the second with the triple-killer who sends the credits to the game and keeps hopes more alive than ever. of the VEF. On the other hand, the beautiful but wasteful Nutribullet is on the threshold of the underworld which, after the 3-in-a-row in the first round, is now risking big.

VEF RIGA – NUTRIBULLET TREVISO 74-71

VEF: Riley 19 (4/5, 3/8), Ate 2 (0/2, 0/1), Zoriks 3 (3/5, 2/7), Miska 6 (3/4), Gromov 7 (2/5); Walker 4 (0/1, 1/4), Curry 13 ( 2/6, 2/5), Gulbis 10 (2/3, 2/4). Ne: Krumins, Butirins. All.: Gailite

NUTRIBULLET: Russell 15 (3/9, 2/4), Dimsa 9 (2/2, 1/7), Sokolowski 11 (2/4, 1/3), Akele 0 (0/3, 0/1), Sims 13 (3/8, 1/2); Bortolani 14 (1/1, 3/4), Imbrò 0 (0/1, 0/1), Chillo 3 (1/1 from 3), Jones 6 (3/4, 0/2). Ne: Vettori, Faggian, Casarin. Coach: Menetti

REFEREES: Ciulin (RUM), Sharapa (BIE), Calatrava (ESP)

NOTE: pp 16-15, sq 34-43, tq 51-53. Tl: VEF 12/15, TV 16/18. Yes 2: VEF 16/31, TV 14/32. From 3: VEF 10/29, TV 9/25. Rebounds: VEF 8 + 27 (Gromov 3 + 5), TV 6 + 28 (Jones 2 + 8). Assist: VEF 14 (Curry 5), TV 17 (Sokolowski 5). Lost: VEF 13, TV 14. Recoveries: VEF 6, TV 9. Unsportsmanlike conduct at Gulbis at 17’48 “(28-35), Curry at 19’36” (33-41), Bortolani at 31’01 “( 53-53). 5 fouls: Gulbis at 39’58 “(71-69).