


The all-Italian derby between Umana Reyer Venice and Germani Brescia was a one-way contest at Palasport Taliercio, especially in the last 25 minutes, as the hosts dominated on their way to a 90-64 win.
It was a perfect start for new Reyer head coach Neven Spahija, who became a 7DAYS EuroCup champion back in 2010 and registered his 36th win in the competition on Wednesday night at the 53rd attempt.
"Brescia did not play at their level, probably because we did not give them a chance by playing great defense," said Coach Spahija.
Reyer held Brescia to just 34.2% shooting on two-pointers and restricted the visitors to just 6 triples made on 27.3% accuracy. The hosts also tied a club record with 8 blocked shots.
What could please Coach Spahija, however, are the emotions that his players experienced on the floor.
"We had a lot of fun tonight," said center Mitchell Watt, who scored 22 points in under 23 minutes and also collected 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks. "We played together, the ball moved great."
Reyer had a season-high 24 assists, just 1 shy of tying a club record. Jayson Granger and Andrea De Nicolao combined to deliver 13 of those 24.
Even more importantly, this win qualified Reyer for the playoffs and catapulted it into a share of the third-best record (8-7) in Group A, a position which carries a playoff home-court advantage with it.