Napoli Basketball defeat against Germani Brescia for 85-72 in the matchday eight of the Serie A Championship, played this evening at the Alcott Arena. Napoli played a strong game against the league leaders, fighting until the end.
Caruso scores first in the game, Bilan responding. The opening minutes were evenly matched, with scores from Ivanovic and Ndour bringing Brescia to a 4-point lead. Caruso made it 9-13 midway through the quarter. Brescia extended the lead with Della Valle and Burnell, Magro called a timeout with the visitors leading 18-9. Napoli scores with El Amin, a winning tap-in for Bilan, and Mitrou-Long made no mistake from the line. Cournooh made a 3-pointer in the closing minutes, with Treier making it 15-23 after the first break.
Burnell scores a 3-pointer, Simms hits a beautiful post-up basket, Mobio makes it 17-28, Flagg three-pointers, El Amin drives to make it 24-30, Brescia calls a timeout. Napoli defends well now, Simms scores, and Bolton brings Napoli within 2. Brescia breaks the run with Bilan, Flagg goes 2-of-2 from the line, Della Valle lays up, Bilan brings Brescia back to 37-30, timeout for Napoli. Della Valle hits another 3-pointer, and the quarter ends 44-33 in favor of the away team.
Bilan scored again for Brescia, Bolton for Napoli, Rivers made a three, and Mitrou-Long responded, making it 40-51 midway through the third quarter. Scoring continued, with Della Valle bringing Brescia back to a 12-point lead, Croswell making 1 of 2, and Mitrou-Long scoring on a drive. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 56-49 for Brescia.
Germani started strong with a 7-0 run, Ivanovic and Rivers. Azzurri tried not to give up with Simms and Bolton, bringing the score back to -7. Della Valle and Ivanovic made no mistakes from the free throw line, and Brescia again made a run with five consecutive points from Della Valle, 60-75 with four minutes left. Brescia managed to maintain the lead in the final minutes despite Napoli's attempts to come back. The match ended on 85-72 for Germani Brescia.
Napoli Basketball will return on court next Sunday, again at the Alcott Arena, at 8:00 PM against Banco di Sardegna Sassari.
Box Score:
Flagg 5, Mitrou-Long 18, El-Amin 6, Croswell 7, Faggian, Treier 2, Gentile, Simms 13, Caruso 4, Bolton 17, Saccoccia n.e., Gloria n.e.
Coach Alessandro Magro:
"We're disappointed to have played a poor game in front of a sold-out arena. I expected a different game; we made too many mistakes to try to win against a team that plays really well. This game can't be won on defense; we need to do better on defense, but these types of games must be won with plays that energize and allow us to make those breaks that we are able to do. Looking at the numbers, the 3-point shooting percentage is clearly in their favor. We tried various solutions to cause problems for our opponents, but that wasn't enough to win against Germani. We want to create great cohesion with the fans; we'll have to try again. We're angry, but certainly not desperate."