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Italian League playoffs, Quarterfinals, Game 4: May 24-25, 2007 |
Armani Jeans Milano is returning to the Italian League semifinals, but must wait to find out the name of its opponent after Angelico Biella forced a fifth and final quarter game thanks to a stirring overtime victory against VidiVici Bologna in the last remaining best-of-five quarterfinal. Milano downed visiting Varese 77-88 on Friday to take their series 3-1 as Sven Schultze and Danilo Gallinari scored 15 points each and shared 8 triples between them. Milano squandered big leads but scored the game's last 11 points to make sure of the clinching victory. It marks the second semifinals appearance in the last decade for Milano, which fell in the fifth game of the quarterfinals last season to eventual champion Benetton Treviso. A fifth game will be needed to decide this year's last quarterfinal series after Biella downed VidiVici 84-79 in OT on Thursday to tie that series at 2-2. Reece Gaines scored in the closing seconds to send that game to overtime, where he, Erik Daniels and Jamel Thomas sent Biella to victory. Thomas vinished with 21 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists for the winners, while Vlado Ilievski scored 7 of his 16 points in OT for VidiVici. Biella has only been in the first division for a few years and has never finished better than eighth place. The decisive Game 5 between them comes on Sunday in Bologna. Montepaschi Siena and Lottomatica Roma had previously won their quarterfinal series and are waiting to face each other in the semifinals.
In Biella, the hosts stormed back from 9 points behind with 7 minutes left against VidiVici, which had also led by 31-38 at the half thanks to a 0-7 run in the last 40 seconds of the second quarter. Taylor Coppenrath triggered Biella's first comeback, but after his team took a brief lead in minute 27, VidiVici revived again to go up 49-58 early in the fourth quarter. Coppenrath again turned around Biella, making a three-point play, until a triple by Daniels and a basket by Thomas set up the last-second heroics by Gaines, leaving a 68-68 tie. Overtime remained close until Thomas blasted a shot from the arc that made it 77-74, after which Biella led the rest of the way. Gaies added 18 points and Daniels 15 for the winners, while Coppenrath had 9 rebounds. VidiVici got scoring help from Dusan Vukcevic and Brett Blizzard, with 13 points each.
In their series clincher, Armani used 2 early triples by Gallinari to go ahead 4-8 and carve out bigger leads from there. Another pair of strikes from arc by Schultze ended the first quarter with the visitors up 16-24. Watson's inside work and Schultze's third triple let Milano double Varese at 17-34, but after that the hosts slowly inched back. It was 33-47 at halftime and 52-62 after Alessandro De Pol's triple to end the third quarter. Three-pointers by Gallinari and Kiwane Garris left Milano still holding a double-digit lead, 63-74, with just over 5 minutes left. Then, Galanda scored 5 points in a 10-0 run and William Keys added a go-ahead shot at 75-74 for Varese's first lead since the game's opening basket. Triples by Massimo Bulleri and Schultze in the last 2 minutes allowed Milano to launch an 0-11 closing run that finished with their team in the semifinals against either VidiVici or Biella.
ITALIAN LEAGUE: Quarterfinal Playoffs, best of 5 games |
| Record | Team | Game 1 | Game 2 | Game 3 | Game 4 | Game 5 | 3 | Montepaschi Siena (1) | 95 | 97 | 91 | x | x | 0 | Tisettanta Cantu (8) | 76 | 82 | 60 | x | x | 3 | Lottomatica Roma (4) | 73 | 68 | 83 | x | x | 0 | Eldo Napoli (5) | 57 | 64 | 58 | x | x | 3 | Armani Jeans Milano (2) | 75 | 77 | 62 | 88 | x | 1 | Whirlpool Varese (7) | 72 | 69 | 71 | 77 | x | 2 | VidiVici Bologna (3) | 87 | 94 | 104 | 79 | May 27 | 2 | Angelico Biella (6) | 97 | 69 | 102 | 84 | - |
Quarterfinal Playoffs Games | | Game 1 | Montepaschi Siena vs. Tisettanta Cantu | 95-76 | May 16 | | Game 1 | Armani Jeans Milano vs. Whirlpool Varese | 75-72 | May 16 | | Game 1 | VidiVici Bologna vs. Angelico Biella | 87-97 | May 16 | | Game 1 | Lottomatica Roma vs. Eldo Napoli | 73-57 | May 16 | | Game 2 | Tisettanta Cantu vs. Montepaschi Siena | 82-97 | May 19 | | Game 2 | Whirlpool Varese vs. Armani Jeans Milano | 69-77 | May 19 | | Game 2 | Angelico Biella vs. VidiVici Bologna | 69-94 | May 19 | | Game 2 | Eldo Napoli vs. Lottomatica Roma | 64-68 | May 19 | | Game 3 | Montepaschi Siena vs. Tisettanta Cantu | 91-60 | May 22 | | Game 3 | Armani Jeans Milano vs. Whirlpool Varese | 62-71 | May 22 | | Game 3 | VidiVici Bologna vs. Angelico Biella | 104-102 | May 22 | | Game 3 | Lottomatica Roma vs. Eldo Napoli | 83-58 | May 22 | | Game 4 | Whirlpool Varese vs. Armani Jeans Milano | 77-88 | May 25 | | Game 4 | Angelico Biella vs. VidiVici Bologna | 84-79 | May 24 | | Game 5 | VidiVici Bologna vs. Angelico Biella | - | May 27 |
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Friday, May 25, 2007
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