Well in place defensively, the Namuroises force misses from the GEAS, unfortunately, on the other side of the floor, the players of Phivos Livatidis also commit a lot of waste. The Milanese find the gaps in the Namur defense and finish inside while, opposite, the locals remain silent. It was only in the 7th minute that Virjoghe scored Namur’s first points (2-9). Franquin continues but Namur forgets a Milanese in the retreat, before Virjoghe then Bully shines. Milan takes a useful timeout as Makurat adjusts the sights from 6.75m, soon imitated by Spreafico and Conti (8-20). Namur has just taken a blow to the head at the end of the first quarter.
Gustavsson hits the nail on the head at the start of the second quarter while on the Namur side, the outside shots do not go in. It’s finally Hood, alone in the corner, who sets the sights first. Namur presses all terrain in stride and gets an easy lay-up but a new Italian bomb falls on Hall Octave Henry (13-25, 13th). Makurat is confident and punishes again from afar, just before Orsili intercepts and rushes to the ring. A new basket from the GEAS winger pushes Namur back to -21 (13-34, 16′). Defosset then frees the Namur public with a three-pointer, followed by Virjoghe inside. Franquin takes over and does his best to allow Namur to eat up some ground before the break (25-39).
On the restart, Namur appears enterprising but Makurat has too much space coming off the screen. Defosset responds immediately, but the Italians score a 9-0 which reduces the Mosanes’ hopes of a comeback (27-50, 23rd).
Italian formality
The intensity drops in the minutes that follow but GEAS continues to press, before Hood scores his first shot of the game. The Namur reaction is slow to come and, with the Milanese shooters continuing their show, the gap continues to grow (32-63, 29). The last ten minutes are just a formality for the Italians whose address still falls (39-66, 34). Namur opened its bench in the last minutes and conceded a second heavy setback in this group phase. Difficult to compete with a team of this caliber when the pros in the squad are so unproductive. Hsu and Hood, already not to their advantage in Lisbon, finished the match at 2/8 and 1/8 respectively.
For Namur coach Phivos Livatidis, the meeting was a long journey: “We didn’t see anything, it was Lisbon’s performance but worse! I’m very angry and frustrated, because we showed on Saturday that we were capable of much better. Taking 35 points from a team with our reach, I didn’t sign up for that and certainly not at home.” If the coach wonders if his message is getting through to the players, he maintains the support of the club leaders.
