ITA - Italian League round-up

Siena one win from playoff berth

FERRARA (LEGA A) - With one third of the season still left to play, Montepaschi Siena are on the verge of clinching their playoff berth in record time.

The defending champions beat Carife Ferrara 71-63 to improve to 20-0 on the season and need just one more win to book their place for the postseason.

Romain Sato had 17 points and eight rebounds for Simone Pianigiani's side. The Central African Republic player buried a three-pointer to give his team a 40-34 halftime lead but a pair of long bombs by Sven Schultze got the home side within 46-44 early in the third period.

The game remained close, with Ferrara hanging around and threatening but the visitors eventually pulled away and Ben Eze's thunderous slam dunk made it 71-60.

Siena's closest 'threat', Pepsi Caserta, also recorded a road win, seeing off Scavolini Pesaro behind Jumaine Jones's 23 points.

The battle for third place continued to be fierce as both Armani Jeans Milano and Sigma Coatings Montegranaro were winners at the weekend.

Armani Jeans outlasted Canadian Solar Bologna 73-71. The game was tied at 67 with about two minutes remaining before the home side scored six points in a row. Marco Mordente made good on four free-throw attempts and Mason Rocca went in for a lay-up and it proved to be just enough.

Rocca had 22 points, Jonas Maciulis added 15 and Mordente finished with 12.

Sigma Coatings Montegranaro rode Anthony Maestranzi's hot three-point shooting to beat Benetton in Treviso 79-69.

Maestranzi connected on six of seven attempts from beyond the arc on his way to 22 points. The visitors as a team were on fire from long range, making 18 of 29 tries.

Elsewhere, Massimo Chessa scored the last five points to help Angelico Biella beat Lottomatica Roma 85-80.



FIBA