It ends 99-89. The black Vu achieved their fifth victory in five matches at PalaDozza: the American with 26 points is the MVP. Strong tension in the city: over 5 thousand demonstrators, with scenes of urban guerrilla warfare in the centre
Virtus Bologna confirms its invincibility in its own fort, where it achieves its fifth success in five home Euroleague games, against Maccabi Tel Aviv. Only one away win, however, for a score that after 12 days says 6 successes and 6 defeats, identical to that of Olimpia Milano and Real Madrid. At PalaDozza it ends 99-89 with the usual show from Carsen Edwards – 26 points with 8/15 from three – and 17 points from Morgan. Among the Israelis, last in the standings, Sorkin starts off strong, then the Brazilian Marcio Santos (19 points) and Dowtin Jr (18) shine. But the joy of VuNere’s performance was accompanied throughout the evening by the surreal atmosphere of an armored PalaDozza for the pro-PAL demonstrations, which culminated in some areas of the city in moments of strong tension and urban guerrilla warfare.
Virtus-Maccabi 99-89
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After a high-scoring first quarter in which Bologna, for the occasion without Smailagic and Taylor, followed Maccabi’s lead (pushed by Sorkin) and conceded a lot in defence, Virtus took a flurry of triples close to half-time which brought them a double-digit lead. There are three minutes left before returning to the locker room when Vildoza inaugurates a series that will see him as the protagonist together with the usual Edwards of a 10-0 break that dissolves the Israelis’ resistance. In terms of scores, they went from 44-40 to 54-40 in the 18th minute. In terms of statistics, those of VuNere at mid-match are impressive: 56 points scored with 10/22 from the arc (it will be 17/38 at the end of the match) of which 5 triples scored by Carsen Edwards, author of 17 points up to that point, well supported by Vildoza and Morgan, with 2 and 3 triples each.
Escape and blackout
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Not even the long pause calms the fire of the Virtussian leader, who stops the Israelis’ comeback attempts by scoring another three baskets from far away in a matter of seconds. There is a lot of his, in short, when Ivanovic’s team reaches +14 again, (74-60) with a basket from Morgan (an excellent evening for him too), a margin kept intact until the third siren and again implemented by Morgan after 31 minutes up to the maximum advantage of 16 points (82-66). It seems like the middle of the night for the Tel Aviv team, incapable of containing the hosts and clumsy in attack, yet two minutes from the end they find themselves at -6 (90-84). He has above all to thank the blackout in Bologna, between errors and turnovers. Once they reached 90-76 halfway through the fourth quarter, Virtus got distracted and suffered a break of 8 points in sequence which complicated the final, fortunately without compromising it. Thanks to a triple by Alston Jr.
Virtus: Edwards 26, Morgan 17, Diouf 14
Maccabi: Santos 19, Dowtin Jr 18, Sorkin and Dibartolomeo 11
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