Italian Serie A Round 19 Roundup
Things heated up in Round 19 of the Italian Serie A regular season. The final game was played out yesterday between league leading EA7 Emporio Armani Milano and Sidigas Avellino in Milan. Armani came through with a solid win at home 95-78. The defending champs are now 17-2 and are in a great position for a deep run in the postseason. The loss puts Sidigas Avellino at 8-11 and they remain in 11th place in the league. Marshon Brooks and Samardo Samuels teamed up for 44 points to lift Armani during key stretches in the game.
A very important game in the round saw VL Pesaro come away with a very tight upset over second ranked Grssin Bon Reggio Emila, 75-74. It was an impressive effort. Pesaro had to overcome a complete team effort from Grisson Bon RE with six of their players scoring in double figures. Pesaro was carried by Chris Wright and his 21 points. The dropped game for Grissin Bon puts them at 14-5, still at second place, but are now tied up with Umana Venezia.
Venezia stayed steady with a 53-67 win on the road over OpenjobMetis Varese. Venezia took control of this game early and simply kept a pace that their hosts could not overcome. Julyan Stone put up a massive double-double performance for them, scoring 13 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Hrvoje Peric managed to finish with a game-high 16 points.
It was more good news for Banco di Sardegna Sassari which was able to pull off yet another win. This time, they took down Virtus Roma to the tune of a 72-61 score. Sassari started off the season strong, but they lost their way for some time and struggled to string together wins. Lately, however, the team has appeared to have found their second wind and are back to their winning ways. David Logan is still their main weapon, but Jerome Dyson is also back in action. Logan had 15 points and six assists, while Dyson scored 14 points and grabbd 10 boards.
Enel Brindisi was the other top team to suffer an upset loss this round. They fell to Dolomiti Energia Trento 95-83. Enel Brindisi is now 11-8, but they still remain in fifth place in the league standings. Trento, now 10-9, is tied with Granorolo Bologna and both clubs are hot on the heels of Enel Brindisi. Tony Mitchell scored a game-high 29 points for Trento as they overcame two strong performances from Enel Brindisi’s Elston Turner and Jacob Pullen, who scored 28 and 20 points respectively.
Rounding out the league’s Top 8 is Vanoli Cremona (9-10). An unfortunate 108-96 loss by Cantu to Bologna has them sliding all they way down to 10th place.