“Varese basketball secures victory with Colbey Ross as MVP”

With one last sprint full of heart, self-sacrifice and… Ross, Varese basketball is safe.

Victory 95-81 over Scafati and simultaneous defeat of Reggio Emilia in Sassari: now there’s also arithmetic. The goal is reached at the end of a difficult, nervous, fought game, but in which the red and whites had a transcendental charge deriving from having been forced into a championship finale that was totally different from what they deserved.

Matt Brase’s team is made up of real men: it showed tonight too. Starting with Colbey Ross, acclaimed MVP by the crowd: in the decisive moment 33 points, 10 rebounds, 13 assists. There are no words to comment on his performance.

Behind him the sacrifice of all: the class of the champion Markel Brown (24 points), the impact under the basket of Caruso (12 points), the abnegation of captain Ferrero and Reyes, revived. Scafati tried everything (Logan 24), making up for the disadvantages several times and keeping the hosts anxious until the fourth period: but even the Campania players had to bow against this army.

All under the sky of a creepy Masnago, who on the edge of an innocent abyss held his boys by the hand from start to finish, cheering, cheering, booing, exploding with joy. As we write, the party on the parquet continues: Scola, Brase and all the players are carried in triumph. Here are some videos.

4°quarto

Scafati shoots the last rounds with Logan, who after the triple takes Librizzi to school for 71-64. Reyes does well on entry, Owens crushes but then gets the coach and it’s his fifth penalty (75-65 in the 32nd minute). The professor with the number 40 shirt of the visitors is the last to surrender (again a triple), but the moment is cathartic for Brown and for Caruso, who takes the chair under the boards: 81-68 in the 35th minute. It is the decisive extension, also because Ross – with 6 points in a row – decides to legitimize what all the fans hope: that he becomes MVP. It’s 37′, it’s 90-72 on the pitch: Varese is safe. It ends 95-81.

3° quarto

Back to the parquet. Thompson scored twice under the basket, followed by Okoye from the corner: the only home answer came from Owens (49-44 in the 24th minute). To let Masnago breathe two entries up to Ross’s iron, then the good action on the Woldetensae-Caruso axis: in the 16th minute it’s 57-48 and Sacripanti asks for a timeout. Varese seems to have found rhythm and dangerousness, restarting from the defense: Brown and Caruso twice go for 62-52 (28′), Okoye puts it in from the corner and Librizzi imitates him from the other side, on the siren. It’s the 30′ and Masnago is all up: 69-57.

2° quarto

Owens and Woldetensae pick up where Openjobmetis left off, but two baskets from Rossato – one on a Librizzi-De Nicolao mess – awaken Givova (37-21 in the 13th minute). Who gets even closer working well in defense, in particular under the basket on Caruso, and stinging with Logan. In the 14th minute it’s 37-27 and the hosts seem to have faded. Logan completes a run of 13-0, stopped only by the incursion of Ross (39-34), the game gets nervous. But then Colbey sits Logan down and shoots him in the face with a sidereal triple, followed by another bomb (by Woldetensae) in the following counter-attack: 46-35 in the 18th minute. In the final rush of the first half only Rossato scores: in the 20th minute it’s 46-37.

1° quarto

There is Ferrero in coach Brase’s quintet in place of Johnson. The triples by Ross and Brown (twice) warm up a Masnago who – even when the Captain slips in from the corner – practically takes the field: in the 4th minute it’s 12-7. Sacripanti’s first timeout comes after baskets from Owens, Logan and Brown again (19-9 in the 6′), but the story of the first quarter doesn’t change: the US guard from Varese scores and lets the others score (Caruso in this case) and the home advantage goes up to +15 (24-9). The last two minutes are a show by Ross, who also frustrates the classy play of the expert Logan: in the 10th minute it’s 32-16.

Ball at two at 17.30.