An Easter Saturday on the road for Olimpia: the game in Reggio Emilia completes a cycle in which ithree of the top five teams in the Italian league were met plus the winner of the Italian Cup. At the Pala Bigi there will be the third road game of the last four rounds and Olimpia, in the twelfth game of the season played on “short rest”, is playing for the possibility of remaining in the running to advance in the standings, where currently sits in third position tied with Venezia, one win behind from Bologna and Brescia who lead the standings. Reggio Emilia is in a fifth position that seems to have crystallized, but it is just two wins distant from the third place, so it can attempt its final assault. After the Italian Cup – in which they beat Bologna and then lost the semi-final to Napoli – they won three out of four games including the last two by wide margins.
In the Milano leg, Olimpia won with an 11-point margin: compared to then there is no longer Kevin Hervey as a power forward, replaced by a pure center like Tarik Black, a man with four years of EuroLeague experience behind him plus 220 games in the NBA. He brings great experience to the table which has made the Reggio Emilia team even more solid in this respect, considering the backgrounds of Briante Weber (10.5 points and 4.4 rebounds per game so far), Jamarr Smith (he is averaging 10.9 points per game coming off the bench) and Langston Galloway above all. Galloway is one of the top scorers in the league, averaging 17.6 points per game on 38.1 percent from threes on more than attempts per game. Galloway ha sappeared in 452 NBA games during hs career and has scored more 3.600 points. “Their guards form a very complete group, our aggressiveness will be crucial. We have to prevent them from running, starting with an accurate control of the ball,” assistant coach Mario Fioretti said.
Olimpia returned from Kaunas on Thursday night and will reach Reggio Emilia in the morning. After this game, completed two thirds of the regular season, it will have three home games and two away games remaining. Among the first also the direct clash with Brescia. Pippo Ricci will not be available yet. Tip off time is at 20:30.
