The close challenges of Givova Scafati continue, which on Sunday evening (18:00) at PalaMangano, will face the fifth challenge in just two weeks. The opponent for the round, for the twenty-fifth round of the Serie A2 championship (red group) will be Kienergia Rieti, who in the first leg inflicted a 79-74 defeat on the yellow-blues, now animated by a great desire for redemption. The races so close in time certainly do not favor physical recovery, but coach Finelli will finally be able to have the full staff, given that all the staff at his disposal are eligible.
The Kienergia Rieti that instead will reach the Campania region could be incomplete and have some defections, due to the various infected with covid-19 in the team group, forced to a long stop due to isolation. Sunday’s match will be the first for the Lazio players after the postponement of the previous matches and after finally having ritually resumed training, albeit in reduced ranks. The amaranth-celestial staff, led on the bench by the Neapolitan coach Alessandro Rossi, is however one of the best of the group, which enjoys a very respectable starting quintet, composed of Stefanelli (guard from 15.8 points on average), Taylor ( big forward with 14.9 points and 9.6 rebounds on average), Pepper (small forward with 13.2 points on average), De Laurentiis (center with 13.2 points and 8.2 rebounds on average) and Sanguinetti (playmaker by 9.3 points and 2.9 assists on average). The Amici wing could instead emerge from the bench (back from a long injury), the external Piccoli and Sabatino (coming from Scafati, where he played until last month) and the long Ponziani and Nonkovic.
Assistant coach Umberto Di Martino: «On Sunday we face the fifth game in fifteen days, but our tour de force will end only next Wednesday with the match against Ferrara. We are experiencing a period in classic play-off style, ready to adjust the details to be ready after a few days to face a new race, trying to polish what did not go in the previous game. It is not always easy to recharge the batteries, but we have a long roster and therefore we are able to obviate this need. On Sunday we will face a team that has been forced to a long stop due to the spread of covid-19 infections in the team group. We do not know in what conditions they will arrive, but our physical conditions are also not optimal, even if, unlike them, we have never been forced to stop and we are continuing to work non-stop. We need to recharge our batteries and have a solid attitude in defense, trying to assert the advantage of the home factor. In the first leg we saw that Rieti has an important quintet with Sanguinetti directing, the American couple Pepper – Taylor who guarantees points and experience, the scorer Stefanelli and then they are solid in rebound with one of the best longs of the championship like De Laurentiis. On the bench they have recently added two new players, as the winger Piccoli and the point guard Sabatino, whom we know very well. We do not know if Amici will return from the stop. Overall, the team from Rieti is a physical, aggressive team, against which it will be important to have control of the rebounds, something that was not successful in the first leg ».
Guard Darryl Joshua Jackson: «We are going through a good moment of form, even if the last few games have been very hard and difficult, but we have played with great frequency, so much so that on Sunday we will play the fifth game in two weeks. We are all working well together and are doing our best to get as many positive results as possible. We are continuing to work towards this to get the best possible position at the end of the regular season. On Sunday we will face Rieti, which will probably be incomplete in Scafati due to the infected with covid-19, and this will certainly be an advantage for us. But we still have to stay focused, because it will not be a game with a predictable result, on the contrary we will have to take the field as we have always done so far, with the usual attention and determination. On Sunday I will also collect my Bomber Caffè award of the month of February, which is undoubtedly a great satisfaction, but it is an award that I share with all my teammates, because the results achieved are the result of the work that the whole team does, while personal statistics are only a secondary aspect ».