At Virtus the Italian derby in EuroCup: Venice surrenders 90-84

VIRTUS BOLOGNA-VENICE 90-84

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Virtus finds its home, returning to the Segafredo Arena, and winning the cup after two defeats in a row, first dominating and then suffering. A success that is worth double in the all-Italian challenge of group B. Venice bows in the final, after a long comeback, to the supreme talent of Teodosic, decisive with 10/10 on free throws, and to the superior athleticism of Hervey, a long business suit. The great test of Vitali and the blazes of Watt and Daye are not enough for Reyer to recover the partials of the Italian champions. Tonut’s zero in the end penalizes De Raffaele’s team.

Bologna without Belinelli, operated in the day on the right elbow, long sprint in the first quarter with the flights of Cordinier that push the hosts on +10 (22-12) while Venice, after a great start by Vitali (8 points of the first 10 of the guests) wastes a lot especially in the voice turnovers (5). But soon a few empty passes in the direction of Virtus, with Teodosic slow to carbura and Mannion still behind in condition, allow Reyer to return to the second quarter with overtaking Watt at 27-29 (external break 9-0). Up to the interval the score is the elastic even in the errors on the two offensive half fields. The continuous rotations raise the pace but make the game very dirty. Tense stories between Teodosic and Daye who commits an unsportsmanlike attack on the Serbian play that unlocks in attack by inserting 4 free throws in the same action plus a triple that bring Bologna forward again in double figures (42-32). At the break it is 45-37 for the bianconeri of coach Scariolo who suddenly have to give up also Sampson and Mannion, who came out in pain.

Hervey domina

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In the second half, Weems scores three shots, then Jaiteh dives onto the radio commentary table to save a ball acclaimed by the 4,000 of the Arena. Another triple from the dominant Hervey who rides the new break of 14-2. Venice goes down by 20 and seems to be on the verge of a technical knockout. The reaction is of Vitali who rearms his hand from three and with Daye and Watt combines the return on 61-51. Last quarter with the game reopened. In fact Daye arrives at -3 (84-81), Sanders steals and fails the triple of the draw instead Hervey does not forgive from below and Teodosic closes the accounts in his own way.

Virtus Bologna: Hervey 26, Teodosic 22, Cordinier 13

Venezia: Vitali 26, Daye 15, Watt 13