Italian League playoffs, quarterfinals, Game 4: May 24-25, 2009 - ITALY

May 24, 2013

Italian League playoffs, quarterfinals, Game 4: May 24-25, 2009

Mindaugas Katelynas - Armani Jeans Milano

A second Euroleague team burst into the Italian League semifinals with down-the-stretch know-how, but the last pair of quarterfinal series will need a do-or-die Game 5 before they can be decided. Joining early qualifier Montepaschi Siena in the semifinals over the weekend was Armani Jeans Milano, which used a late three-pointer by Mindaugas Katelynas to defeat visiting Bancatercas Teramo 69-70 on Sunday in Game 4 of their best-of-five series. It was Milano's second one-point-win in the series, good for a 3-1 overall victory as David Hawkins led the winners with 22 points. Also on Sunday, Angelico Biella manhandled visiting Lottomatica Roma 85-67 to even their series 2-2 as Valeiro Spinelli and Pietro Aradori scored 13 points each. Also going to Game 5 are La Fortezza Bologna and Benetton Treviso after the former rolled to a 99-78 home victory on Monday to even the series 2-2. Bologna put six scorers in double figures, led by Sharrod Ford with 19 points. Montepaschi, the three-time defending champion, awaits the Bologna-Treviso winner in one semifinal series, while Milano awaits the Biella-Roma survivor in the other.

Milano opened up a big 12-4 lead to start Game 4 with all those points split between Hawkins and Maurice Tyalor. Newly arrived veteran Denis Marconato and point guard Luca Vitaly helped preserve the difference until Hollis Price, Taylor and Jobey Thomas stretched it to 14 points, 42-28, at the half. Teramo turned things around after the break with 6 three-pointers shot by five different players to pull within 50-48 after 25 minutes. The difference fell to 54-53 at the end of the third quarter, and Teramo took its first lead on Alessandro Piazza basket to open the fourth. The visitors led by 4 points twice, but Hawkins and Marconato kept Milano close enough that the triple by Katelynas on a pass from Price in the closing seconds was good for the victory and passage to the semis. Besides his 22 points, Hawkins had 6 rebounds and 3 assists, while Marconato scored 10 and pulled 8 boards. Giuseppe Poeta led Teramo with 19 points.

In Biella, the visitors from Roma started strong but saw the game slowly slip away until getting blown out late. Sani Becirovic scored 9 points and Ibby Jaaber 8 as Roma stormed ahead 15-23 after one quarter, but Goran Jurak and Joe Smith led a turnaround that saw Biella leading 39-35 at halftime on a buzzer-beating triple by James Gist. The momentum stayed with Biella as Jonas Jerebko's basket supplied the hosts' first double-digit advantage, 49-38, which Becirovic trimmed to 58-52 at the end of three quarters. Spinelli, Aradori and Gist re-opened the big margin early in the fourth, and Biella never looked back on the way to a Game 5 showdown in Rome on Tuesday. To the scoring of Spinelli and Aradori, Gist added 12 points and Smith 10. Becirovic led Roma with 19 points and Jaaber had 11. Game 5 is on Tuesday.

On Monday in Bologna, visiting Benetton blasted out of the gate to a 6-14 advantage, but it would be the hosts from Virtus who scored 55 points by halftime and forced the guests to play catch-up, unsuccessfully, the rest of the night. Ford and Earl Boykins woke quickly to fire Virtus ahead 31-24 after 10 minutes, after which Keith Langford and Alex Righetti joined the shooting spree for what turned out to be a 29-6 game-changing run that bridged the first two quarters. Sandro Nicevic and Ioannis Kalampokis helped keep Benetton as close as 55-39 at the half, but with the first 8 points after the break - including triples by Dusan Vukcevic and Guilherme Giovannoni - Virtus was well on its way to a solid Game 4 victory. To Ford's 19 points, Langford added 17, Brett Blizzard 15, Vukcevic 12 and Righetti 11. DeShaun Wood led Benetton with 16 points while Nicevic and Radoslav Rancik had 15 each. Game 5 is on Wednesday.

Quarterfinals Playoffs, best of 5 games

Record	Team	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Game 5
3	Montepaschi Siena (1)	94	77	93	x	x
0	Scavolini Spar Pesaro (8)	51	68	69	x	x
2	Benetton Basket (4)	85	81	91	78	May 27
2	La Fortezza Bologna (5)	77	94	73	99	-
2	Lottomatica Roma (2)	80	77	99	67	May 26
2	Angelico Biella (7)	67	82	84	85	-
1	Banca Tercas Teramo (3)	75	82	85	69	x
3	Armani Jeans Milano (6)	85	83	77	70	x

Quarterfinals Playoffs round games
Game 1	Lottomatica Roma vs. Angelico Biella	80-67	May 18
Game 1	Banca Tercas Teramo vs. Armani Jeans Milano	75-85	May 18
Game 1	Montepaschi Siena vs. Scavolini Spar Pesaro	94-51	May 19
Game 1	Benetton Basket vs. La Fortezza Bologna	85-77	May 19
Game 2	Angelico Biella vs. Lottomatica Roma	82-77	May 20
Game 2	Armani Jeans Milano vs. Banca Tercas Teramo	83-82	May 20
Game 2	Scavolini Spar Pesaro vs. Montepaschi Siena	68-77	May 21
Game 2	La Fortezza Bologna vs. Benetton Basket	94-81	May 21
Game 3	Lottomatica Roma vs. Angelico Biella	99-84	May 22
Game 3	Banca Tercas Teramo vs. Armani Jeans Milano	85-77	May 22
Game 3	Montepaschi Siena vs. Scavolini Spar Pesaro	93-69	May 23
Game 3	Benetton Basket vs. La Fortezza Bologna	91-73	May 23
Game 4	Angelico Biella vs. Lottomatica Roma	85-67	May 24
Game 4	Armani Jeans Milano vs. Banca Tercas Teramo	70-69	May 24
Game 4	La Fortezza Bologna vs. Benetton Basket	99-78	May 25
Game 5	Lottomatica Roma vs. Angelico Biella	-	May 26
Game 5	Benetton Basket vs. La Fortezza Bologna	-	May 27