First European visit for BAXI Manresa to the Italian Derthona court
The Catalan representatives in the BCL play their first match away from home, on the court of a leading team in the Italian League. Bodian Massa and Álex Reyes continue to be casualties.
BAXI Manresa travels to the north of Italy on Monday to face Bertram Derthona Basket, a team well known by Retin Obasohan and Cameron Hunt, who have been there the last few seasons.' Bodian Massa and Alex Reyes will be absent.
After a good start in the BCL at home against Benfica, now it's time to try to be competitive against one of the leading teams in the Italian Serie A. BAXI Manresa leads Group G along with its opponent tomorrow by points difference. With the absences of Bodian Massa (due to a muscle injury) and Alex Reyes (due to an overload) it is clear which 12 players will make up the roster for Matchday 2 of the Basketball Champions League.
The home team also wants to be the group leaders and they know that to do so they must beat BAXI Manresa. This is a very physical team, which will try not to allow the visitors to take their rhythm of the game. In the first game, three players led the team: Tommy Kuhse (22 points and 9 rebounds), Arturs Strautins (23p) and Ismael Kamagate (26p). We will have to keep an eye on their offensive players.
In the preview of this second game, point guard Retin Obasohan and assistant coach Carlos Flores spoke. Obasohan explained that «it is a very important game. Both teams have won the first game. We feel good and we are preparing. Their arena is not easy because of the rival teams. As a team, they are well organized, and they are playing very good basketball. This weekend they lost in the Italian league, and they will surely want to recover. They are a versatile and complete team, it will be important to play our game for forty minutes». For his part, Flores commented that «the last victory has given us a lot of energy, and this is essential to go and play against a very good rival. We must try to take advantage of this moment. It is a difficult rival, they are very strong at home. It is a very solid and physical team, which will want to break our rhythm. We must be faithful to our philosophy: try to run, play with a lot of possession, dominate the game from the defense. They have very clear offensive focuses».