LUISS Roma resisted Caserta‘s comeback and conquered the PalaPiccolo 73 to 81, finding the away success that had been missing since February 10th in Trieste: a good eight months. A hard-fought victory this evening, with flashes of great basketball from LUISS especially in the first half. When Caserta, without D’Argenzio and Laganà, reacted and entered the game
LUISS also had to defend the PalaPiccolo.
THE MATCH
Inertia of the match at the start was entirely in favor of the traveling team, 4-13, thanks to baskets by Salvioni and Villa combined with a triple by Fallucca. Azzaro readjusts Caserta and with him Heinonen who scores repeatedly from the arc: at the first break the score is 18-23. Caserta returns to contact with Diouf who takes advantage of the centimeters compared to Jovovic, LUISS mismanages some balls in attack and Caserta with Romano finds the first advantage of the match in the 12th minute (29-25).
LUISS runs the ball very well on the perimeter and this translates into Fallucca’s triple, then it’s Cucci’s turn from the corner twice (36-43 in the 27th minute). Pugliatti enters the triple festival and Marchiaro’s buzzer beater from midfield sends the teams to halftime at 45 to 54.
After the break Pugliatti goes to the rim and, thanks to two good defenses, LUISS digs into the gap with Villa (48-66 at 26′) forcing Cagnazzo into a minute’s suspension. From that moment another match begins, with Caserta trying to get back on top and deploying a zonal defense that really annoys LUISS. A maxi partial opens for the hosts who incredibly come back into contact (12 to 1, 60-67) also pushed by a crowd that had been silent until then.
Caserta sails with the wind in their sails, managing to pull for the equalizer with Ricci at 66-69, LUISS seems to be on the ropes but Fallucca’s triple gives the blue and whites a two-possession lead. In the last two minutes Caserta has the reserve light on and a stoic LUISS resists the attacks to bring home two points.
THE SCORESHEET
Paperdi Juvecaserta – Luiss Roma 73-81 (18-23, 27-31, 16-15, 12-12)
Paperdi Juvecaserta: Osku Heinonen 18 (3/3, 3/7), Davide Mastroianni 11 (2/3, 2/6), Antonello Ricci 9 (0/0, 2/5), Raffaele Romano 9 (2/4, 1/6), Benjamin Marchiaro 9 (2/3, 1/3), Adamu adam Abba 9 (4/6, 0/0), Alessandro Azzaro 6 (3/4, 0/2), Baye modou Diouf 2 ( 0/1, 0/0), Stefano Pisapia 0 (0/1, 0/0), Matteo Laganà 0 (0/0, 0/0), Tadej Kumer 0 (0/0, 0/0), Domenico D ‘silver 0 (0/0, 0/0)
Free throws: 14 / 19 – Rebounds: 39 8 + 31 (Baye modou Diouf 8) – Assists: 16 (Davide Mastroianni, Antonello Ricci 4)
Luiss Roma: Matteo Fallucca 24 (1/3, 6/11), Valerio Cucci 17 (1/8, 3/6), Riccardo Salvioni 13 (4/5, 1/1), Francesco Villa 10 (3/3, 0/5), Fabrizio Pugliatti 8 (2/4, 1/3), Simone Rocchi 3 (1/1, 0/2), Marco Pasqualin 3 (0/0, 0/1), Matija Jovovic 2 (1/ 3, 0/0), Edoardo Bottelli 1 (0/0, 0/0), Matteo Ferrara 0 (0/0, 0/0), Nicholas Errica 0 (0/1, 0/0), Mattia Graziano 0 ( 0/0, 0/0)
Free throws: 22 / 29 – Rebounds: 26 3 + 23 (Matteo Fallucca 7) – Assists: 17 (Francesco Villa 6)
