May 24, 2012
Italian League Semifinals, Game 4: June 7-8, 2007
Romain Sato - Montepaschi The Italian League finals are all set after Montepaschi Siena and VidiVici Bologna imposed their will with Game 4 victories in the semifinals. Montepaschi left no doubt about it while winning 49-70 on the road against Lottomatica Roma to take that best-of-five series 3-1. Montepaschi ruled from start to finish, and especially on the boards, where the visitors outrebounded Roma 23-43. Romain Sato, with 15 points and 10 rebounds, was the big gun for Montepaschi. Dejan Bodiroga scored 12 for Roma and received a moving five-minute ovation when he left the game amid speculation that he might retire soon. VidiVici Bologna made it look almost as easy while downing Armani Jeans Milano 81-73 to end their series 3-1. Vlado Ilievski paced the winners with 16 points. The final series opens on Wednesday in Siena.

Montepaschi jumped all over Roma, starting with a triple by Sato which meant that the visitors led the game from tipoff to the final buzzer. Lonny Baxter and Shaun Stonerook soon combined for the first double-digit lead, at 6-17, and the first quarter ended 14-23. Vrbica Stefanov started the second quarter with a triple that restored Montepaschi's double-digit lead. Only Bodiroga responded for Roma before the half ended 27-40. Montepaschi exploded with a 3-11 run after the break that included a pair of Rimantas Kaukenas triples and sent the visitors on their way to victory. The highlight after that was Bodiroga's departure late in the fourth quarter, which stopped the game for 5 minutes while over 10,000 fans in Rome serenaded him with their farewells on the supposition that he might not play there again. Baxter joined Romain with 15 points for the winners, while Kaukenas had 14 and Stefanov 10.

Dueling triples by Kiwame Garris of Milano and Christian Drejer of Bologna got the other Game 4 started. Drejer hit another and had all his team's points in an 8-7 lead, but Milano soon went ahead by 5 points, and it took a late triple by Ilievski for Bologna to get within 23-25 after a quarter. After that, however, the hosts blasted off with a 12-3 start to the second quarter, including 8 points by Travis Best, as Bologna continued toward a 45-37 halftime lead. Milano got within 45-42 on another Garris triple right after halftime, but a 9-0 blast highlighted by Dusan Vukcevic's shot from downtown put Bologna in charge again late in the third quarter. Danilo Gallinari's 4 points in a row got Milano as close as 66-62 with 5 minutes left, but a pair of late triples by Brett Blizzard helped Bologna hold on for the clinching victory. Drejer joined Ilievski among the top scorers for the winners, with 11 points, while Guilherme Giovannoni and Best had 10 points each. Dante Calabria, Joseph Blair and Garris each downed 14 points for Milano.

ITALIAN LEAGUE: Semifinal Playoffs, best of 5 games
RecordTeam
Game 1
Game 2
Game 3
Game 4
Game 5
3
Montepaschi Siena (1)
74
84
114
70
x
1
Lottomatica Roma (4)
88
76
108
49
x
1
Armani Jeans Milano (2)
71
81
73
73
x
3
VidiVici Bologna (3)
75
78
80
81
x

Semifinal Playoffs Games
Game 1
Montepaschi Siena vs. Lottomatica Roma
74-88
May 30
Game 1
Armani Jeans Milano vs. VidiVici Bologna
71-75
May 30
Game 2
Lottomatica Roma vs. Montepaschi Siena
76-84
June 2
Game 2
VidiVici Bologna vs. Armani Jeans Milano
78-81
June 3
Game 3
Montepaschi Siena vs. Lottomatica Roma
114-108
June 5
Game 3
Armani Jeans Milano vs. VidiVici Bologna
73-80
June 6
Game 4
Lottomatica Roma vs. Montepaschi Siena
49-70
June 7
Game 4
VidiVici Bologna vs. Armani Jeans Milano
81-73
June 8
Saturday, June 09, 2007
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