As in Pesaro eleven months before. Without three rotation players, starting with two men from the quintet. With plenty of space and responsibility for young people. Withstanding the impact with the theoretical third strength of the championship, playing away from home and with the usual, too many voices of potential disturbance in the background.
Forgetting all this, Treviso Basket wins and enthuses, finally erasing the bad memories of the missed opportunities so far (Varese, Naples, Verona) and taking the first away squad scoresheet of the season. And he does it with numbered men, in a situation of clear emergency which erases any alibi and which at the same time makes the burden of having to support attack and defense fall on the shoulders of the few present.
We needed Paulius Sorokas’ flu attack, in bed with a fever of 39, Alessandro Simioni’s blow to the shoulder and Michal Sokolowski’s trigeminal neuralgia to be able to get Ike Iroegbu and Adrian Banks to play well together for once. But perhaps what was needed more than anything else was a defense that was finally mobile and not fossilized, skilled enough in the area to sow pitfalls along the path of a Derthona who appeared to be the draft of the punctual basket machine to which his audience had so far been accustomed. The fact is that finally, due to absences and forced tactical choices, we saw the Nutribullet imagined in the summer, that is capable of forcing shooting errors and turnovers from the opponents to then unleash the offensive arsenal available in the small department.
And if all in all Banks’s skills as a magician of isolation situations were known, for Iroegbu it must be said that the substantial performance, from double-double accompanied by as many as 10 rebounds (and also 5 losses, unfortunately), is worth the title of MVP – it’s a pity that the statistical detectors attribute his crazy triple from midfield on the siren of the 30th minute to Alvise Sarto, reducing his personal tally from 34 to 31 points.
Curiosity aside, this time we don’t need relays between the two purebred horses. Or at least, not in the common presence on the parquet: with intelligence they know how to dose their respective outbursts, giving space first to one, then to the other. Agent Zero begins, then the Nigerian, in a killer tango of attacks on the area, precariously balanced shots, impossible triples. They are the ones who push TvB who slowly takes off: +8 at the first break, +12 (26-38) in the middle of the second quarter, +12 again at the opening of the last quarter after resisting Bertram’s return to the game.
Here, the mental strength of this version of the Nutribullet, unpublished this season, lies in the ability to absorb even the shock of the 0-10 break collected at the turn of the interval conducted by Macura and Daum. Regardless of the change of plans, Banks and Iroegbu resume their wonderful work from there, from 48-47 of the 22nd round: the first starts charging the black and white rearguard with fouls getting free after free, the second finds percussions at five meters away Ramondino’s defense in two and they rain balls into the Piedmontese basket; with them are the commendable defensive work of Leo Faggian, the abnegation of Sarto, the versatility of Jantunen, the muscles of Cooke, the support of Zanelli, the quality of Scandiuzzi and Torresani.
With everyone’s support, we arrive at the last, throbbing minute: Tortona fails with Macura and Filloy a lot of chances to land the knockout blow and is forced to foul three times on Iroegbu who scores 5/6. The most beautiful Christmas present for Treviso fans thus arrives 24 hours late for once, not only justified but welcome.