TORTONA
Turin beats Udine and Tortona closes the regular season in second place. The victory on Wednesday evening of the Reale Mutua Torino of the former Demis Cavina against Bergamo (72-54) for the first time undermined Tortona from the top, after a whole season in which the Lions were the leaders of the Green group. The last part of the Bertram season, with 7 defeats in the last 8 races (the last Sunday against Udine), reversed the performance of the Lions after the 12 consecutive victories at the start.
So the situation at the moment sees Turin with 36 points, Tortona 34, Udine 30 and Verona 28. The fight for third place is still open because Udine must recover with Trapani tomorrow at 20.30 and Turin must play the last match with Verona, again tomorrow at 6 pm. If Udine wins, it is third and enters the White group of the clock phase (in which the best three teams of both groups are included), but in case it loses and the Veronese win with Turin for difference in the baskets direct clashes Verona would be third and would detach a ticket for the White group. The clock phase foresees that the teams of one group face the three best of the other with home and away matches. Tortona then faces Scafati at home on Sunday 25 April at 8pm (the time is still unofficial), on Wednesday 28 he goes to Forlì and on Sunday 2 May with Naples.
All the teams take the points earned in the head to head with the clock phase. In the Green group: Turin 6, Tortona and Udine 4 (Verona 4 if Turin beats); in the Red group: Napoli 6, Forlì 4, Scafati 2. From these matches will come out a double scoreboard of the playoffs of eight teams that will play quarter-finals, semifinals and final in best of five matches. The first two realities rise mathematically in A1. Naples and Turin are the best equipped and most ambitious teams games with the intention of moving to A1, while Tortona, Scafati, Forlì, Udine and Verona (which started very badly, but recovered with coach Ramagli) are a step below, but they can compete at the highest level. The former Mirza Alibegovic, now in Turin, warmed up his engines in March in view of the playoffs, resulting in the “Green Group bomber” with 20 three-pointers made out of 52 attempts (38%). In the Red group the winner, for the second consecutive month, is the US guard with Maltese passport Joshua Jackson of Givova Scafati. –