Benetton Treviso finally scored its first Italian-League win of the season, while Lottomatica Roma cruised to its second during Matchday 3 on Thursday night. VidiVici Bologna, Montepaschi Siena and Armani Jeans Milano all won to improve to 3-0 and to remain in first place. The defending champs from Treviso led most of the way, but found themselves in a thriller down the stretch against Whirlpool Varese. After Spencer Nelson put the hosts up by 2 in the closing seconds, Varese's Keith Carter made only one from the line, allowing Benetton to escape with a 77-76 win. Roma and David Hawkins dominated from the start on the way to a 58-71 win at TDShop.it Livorno. VidiVici handed Upea Capo d'Orlando its first loss, 79-60, behind Guilherme Giovannoni's 15 points, while in another battle of undefeateds, Milano got 20 points and 11 boards from Travis Watson to down Legea Scafati 92-71. Siena used 21 points from Romain Sato to beat Air Avellino 78-88. Also Thursday, Angelico Biella defeated Climamio Bologna 87-80 and Bipop Carire Regio Emilia topped Eldo Napoli 79-72. In other results, Snaidero Udine was a 93-77 winner against Premiata Montegranaro and Siviglia Wear Teramo defeated Pallacanestro Cantu 81-73.

Benetton finished the opening period on a 7-0 run to take a promising 24-14. The hosts' fantastic 3-point shooting saw them extend the lead to 46-30 at halftime. Treviso was up by as many as 22 in the third quarter as the game seemed all but over. However Alessandro De Pol and Varese never quit, running off 13 unanswered points early in the fourth to set up a thrilling finish. Delonte Holland's bucket midway through the fourth gave Varese its first lead, 66-67. But Benetton was up to the challenge, immediately reclaiming the lead on one of Richie Frahm's five 3-pointers. The hosts continued to have an answer for each Varese attack, as the game remained close and went to the wire. Nelson put Benetton up 77-75 and Carter failed to tie it from the line and send the game to overtime. Frahm finished with 23 points, Nelson had 16 points and 9 rebounds, Terell Lyday 10 points and Marcus Goree dominated the boards with 13. Giacomo Galanda led Varese with 20 and Aleksander Capin added 18. Roma put things out of reach early, scoring the games first six points and then continuing to pull away for a double-digit lead after just 10 minutes. If there was any doubt at that point, Roma put an end to that too as David Hawkins scored 7 during a 2-20 second-quarter run, which helped the visitors to an 18-43 halftime lead and Livorno never got closer than 13 the rest of the way. Hawkins led the way with 21, Dejan Bodiroga added 17 points and 7 rebounds and Loukas Mavrokefalidis chipped in 10. Daniel Kickert scored 16 for Livorno.

Climamio faltered late against Biella. The hosts won a close first half 44-41, and the game remained tight until the hosts went on a 22-4 run to take a commanding 76-54 lead early in the fourth quarter. Climamio fought back to close the gap to 9, but it was too little, too late. Antonio Porta and Taquan Dean scored 17 each and Erik Daniels and Reece Gaines 15 apiece for Biella. David Bluthenthal led Climamio with a game-high 27, Kristaps Janicenoks added 13 and Marco Bellineli 12. Reggio Emelia reeled off 13 straight points late in the first half to take a 39-32 halftime lead against Napoli. The visitors trimmed the gap to 4 in the opening minute of the third period, but Benjamin Ortner led a Reggio Emelia surge that put the home team up by 15 and Napoli never threatened again. Cory Violette led Reggio Emelia with 19 points and 9 rebounds, Ricky Minard had 17, Ortner 12 and 9 and C.J. Watson contributed 11. Tierre Brown and Michel Morandais scored 17 apiece and Richard Rocca Mason 16 for Napoli. Siena took the lead for good against Avellino on the last play of the first quarter, but the pesky opposition never quit. Romain Sato scored 21 and grabbed 8 boards, Benjamin Eze added 16 points and 8 rebounds, Vladimer Boisa 11 and Terrell McIntyre 10 points and 6 assists for Siena. Jason Capel and Danny Strong led Avellino with 17 apiece. Larry O'Bannon scored 23 to lead Udine to an easy win. Andrew Wisniewski added 16, Damon Williams 13, Silvio Gigena 12 and Jacob Jaacks 11 for the victors. Ronald Slay had 22 points and 11 rebounds for Montegranaro.