ITA – Many teams still in the hunt for Lega A play-offs
ROME (Lega A) - If Montepaschi Siena are running away to another first-place regular-season finish in Lega A and Bennet Cantu and Armani Jeans Milano are fairly secure in the race for second and third, not much separates teams in positions four through 12. Virtus Bologna lost and Air Avellino won to leave both sides with 12-10 records and fourth and ...
ROME (Lega A) - If Montepaschi Siena are running away to another first-place regular-season finish in Lega A and Bennet Cantu and Armani Jeans Milano are fairly secure in the race for second and third, not much separates teams in positions four through 12.
Virtus Bologna lost and Air Avellino won to leave both sides with 12-10 records and fourth and fifth, respectively, in the Italian standings.
The next seven teams have 10-12 records and are in the following order: Scavolini Siviglia Pesaro (sixth), Vanoli-Braga Cremona (seventh), Dinamo Sassari (eighth), Cimberio Varese (ninth), Benetton Treviso (10th), Pepsi Caserta (11th) and Lottomatica Roma (12th).
Because there are eight rounds remaining, even 13th place Fabi Shoes Montegranaro (9-13) and 14th place Angelico Biella (8-14) have decent shots at finishing in the top eight, which would secure a spot in the play-offs.
Benetton won a vital game over the weekend, 71-65 at Scavolini.
Trailing 51-48, Benetton got eight points and seven rebounds from Switzerland international Greg Brunner over the last 10 minutes.
Brunner, who hadn't scored before the frame, finished with a game-high 11 rebounds.
Benetton play at Gottingen, Germany, in the first game of their Eurocup quarter-finals, on Wednesday.
Remembering that Treviso are hosting the Eurocup Final Eight, the pressure is on Jasmin Repesa’s team to beat a German club that won last season’s EuroChallenge.
Varese scraped a 71-69 triumph at Virtus Bologna while Dinamo Sassari slumped to a 102-85 defeat at second-bottom Enel Brindisi (7-15).
At the top of the table, Montepaschi Siena rolled to a 107-71 triumph over last-place Banca Tercas Teramo, and Benett Cantu claimed an 87-76 victory over Pepsi Caserta.
Armani Jeans routed visiting Fabi Shoes 87-78.
Montepaschi are playing at Olympiacos on Tuesday night in the opening game of their Euroleague quarter-final series while Caserta are in a Eurocup last eight opener at UNICS Kazan on Wednesday.
In other Lega A games, Vanoli-Braga won 83-70 over Roma and Air Avellino prevailed 83-76 over Angelico Biella.
FIBA