Basketball, Serie A: Varese makes poker, Verona relaunches

VARESE-VENICE 93-90
On the evening of the first sell-out in Masnago since the pre-Covid era, Varese is led by point guard Ross (9/16 from the field and 6 assists, with 22 evaluation) to put Venice under after 40 minutes of rare intensity, in which the Coach Brase’s team, which has risen to second place in the standings, makes the most of the streak of a double-double Reyes returning from the injury (8/11 shooting and 10 rebounds) and the usefulness of an all-rounder Brown. The chronicle of the first two quarters says that Varese beats the area fielded by
De Raffaele for +8 at the long interval (47-39) on the push of the aforementioned Reyes (6/6 from 2 to 20′) as well as Woldetensae’s slingshots (3/5 in the triples).

At the start of the second half, the Reyer defense became more attentive on the pick and roll and with Freeman they moved to -1 (53-52 in the 23rd minute). While Brown tries to give breath to the home attack, the game becomes more and more physical and Tessitori takes center stage, propitiating the outside overtaking with Granger (65-67 in the 27th minute). Varese tries to stay on pace and closes the third quarter at +4 (73-69) before being overtaken again by Tessitori and then the outside +5 with Parks in evidence (78-83 at 35’10”) . Now the physical superiority of Umana weighs on the parquet, but Johnson and Reyes are not there and give light to Masnago’s 5 thousand (86-85 in 36’24”). We enter the last 180 seconds with Caruso who crushes and then suffers the breakthrough by Watt for the 5th foul by the US center. Granger equalized with a triple to score 90-90 in the 38’50”, but Varese confirmed himself as a real team and Caruso always scored 3 out of 4 free throws for the final 93-90:
(Antonio Franzi)
Varese: Ross 20, Reyes 19, Brown 15.
Venice: Freeman 17, Parks 13, Willis and Watts 12.

REGGIO-VERONA 65-70
Magical night for Verona which returns to victory after five consecutive defeats and scores its first away success, conquering the PalaBigi in Reggio Emilia. For coach Ramagli’s team, the performances of Cappelletti (10 assists and the decisive basket) and Smith (18 points and 9 rebounds) are superlative, but the whole collective that up to now had reaped less than what was sown makes a good impression. Ugly ko instead for Reggio who pays heavily for the absence of Michele Vitali (positive for Covid) and cannot find the adequate answers despite the energy of Anim (12 points and 15 evaluation). Coach Menetti chooses the quintet made up of Cinciarini, Anim, Strautins, Reuvers and Hopkins while Ramagli replies with Cappelletti, Anderson, Sanders, Johnson and Smith. Verona gets off to a great start and flies up to +11 (8-19 in the 6th minute) thanks to plays by Cappelletti and Smith, while Reggio clings to Reuvers to stay in line (20-25 in the 10th minute). The second quarter lives on the edge of balance even if the averages drop tragically (31-37). In the second half Verona is once again starting off on the right foot and retouching the maximum advantage with Johnson (31-43) before the reaction of the home team led by Cinciarini and Anim who, however, are unable to mend the gap (44-50 at 30 ‘). In the final sprint Reggio goes as far as -2 with a triple from Cipolla (61-63 in the 39th minute), but Ramagli’s team legitimizes the victory led by Sanders’ experience and by a game of applause from Cappelletti who scores the +4 with 19” to go giving a golden success in Verona.
(Francesco Pioppi)
Reggio Emilia: Olisevicius 14, Anim 12, Reuvers 10
Verona: Smith 19, Anderson 13, Sanders 11