In the end it looked like an easy win, 88-59, over Venezia in the Italy Cup quarterfinals. But Olimpia had to regina control early in the third after a Josh Owens’ offensive attack brought Reyer within three. Then EA7 used all its power and the extension of the bench to take control for good. Ita was a great collective effort in spite of losing Bruno Cerella because of a torn right meniscus, in spite of playing without the Captain and leader Alessandro Gentile. Kruno Simon, Oliver Lafayette, Rakim Sanders and in the most complicated stretch Andrea Cinciarini and Jamel McLean were essential, like Milan Macvan to keep Venezia at bay. “We approached the game well, we did what we knew we had to do in terms of rebounding and physicality to win this game. But now it belongs to the past, Cremona is coming and they are well organized and well coached. They share the league’s first place with us so we need to be careful. They are not a surprise team anymore, they are for real”, said Coach Jasmin Repesa at the end. “Besides – ha added – our smalls rotation is going to be a little thin because on top of Gentile’s being out we lost also Bruno Cerella. And I’m very disappointed for him”, ha added.