Basketball, Serie A results: Milan beats Cremona, Bologna wins over Trieste

The 13th day of the championship ends with the victories of Virtus and Olimpia in the double postponement: Milan greets 2025 with an important success over Cremona, the fourth consecutive in the championship, which allows Poeta’s men to catch up with Venezia and Tortona in third place. For Vanoli, however, it is the fifth defeat in a row, with Brotto’s team slipping to twelfth place, -2 from the playoff zone. Bologna, on the other hand, suffers in Trieste, but achieves a fundamental success: without Edwards, who will remain in the box for a couple of weeks, and with Diarra forced to come off after 7′ of play, Virtus achieves their eleventh victory of the season at the end of a difficult match full of errors, regaining the top spot on par with Brescia.

MILAN-CREMONA 91-74

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A super Shields, a defense capable of keeping Cremona at 38% from the field, a phenomenal breakthrough at the end of the 3rd quarter: these three factors allow Olimpia to regulate a willing Vanoli, capable of withstanding the physical and technical impact of EA7 and overcoming a deficit that had reached 17 points. The start of the match, in fact, tells of a concentrated Milan, cynical in attacking mismatches, capable of flying to 27-10 in the 9th minute, preventing the guests from scoring for over 5′. From there, however, Cremona began to pick up a rhythm with Willis and Casarin, while Durham was contained very well by the defensive changes. Brotto’s team takes advantage of the offensive rebounds (there will be 10) and some turnovers from Milan (10) to get back to -12 (43-31 at halftime). An unleashed Ndiaye leads Cremona’s comeback, which returns to -4 (50-46 at 25′), but from that moment Milan puts their hands back on the wheel and runs away thanks to defense and triples. There will be 5 baskets from beyond the arc in the 3rd quarter (out of 9 attempts), and Shields leads his team to a 22-4 run. It’s the moment in which the match is decided, with Olimpia picking up pace and never looking back: LeDay, Nebo and Ellis also exceeded double figures, and in the fourth period EA7 only had to manage the advantage, extinguishing Vanoli’s last reaction attempt.

Milan: Shields 22, LeDay 16, Nebo 13.

Cremona: Ndiaye 12, Willis 11, Casarin 10.

TRIESTE-BOLOGNA 66-74

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Test of strength from Virtus, who snatched a victory tooth and nail on an evening in which the ball didn’t turn (20 turnovers) and the shots came in fits and starts (7/22 from 3). There are two heroes who allow the V-blacks to leave PalaTrieste with a smile: Morgan leads for almost the entire match, before handing over to Alston in the final. Yet, everything seems to be going swimmingly at the start: Morgan scores 8 of the first 15 points for Virtus, who reach +12 (7-19 after 6′), but loses Diarra due to injury, eliminating the possibility of rotations under the basket. Trieste starts to mend things, and gets back to -4 at the end of the 1st half, taking advantage of Bologna’s errors and the physicality of Brown, Brooks and Toscano-Anderson, but loses Ross at the start of the 2nd half. In the second half the match becomes chaotic, with the teams making everything wrong and losing several balls (3rd quarter score 13-11). Two free throws from Toscano-Anderson even resulted in a draw (62-62 with 3′ to go), but from there first Morgan returned to score after the foul problems, then Alston Jr took the lead, decisive in the final. First he snatches an offensive rebound from JTA’s hands and converts the free throws for +4, then he makes the triple that closes the score 30” from the siren, also suffering a foul from the former Golden State player and completing the game with 4 points from the free throw line. It is the 66-72 basket, which decides the match and confirms Virtus’ solidity in point-to-point matches: Ivanovic’s team is 7-0 in these situations since the end of last season.

Trieste: Brown 15, Toscano-Anderson 13, Ramsey 9.

Bologna: Morgan 19, Alston Jr 16, Niang 12.