Awak Kuier dominated the second Italian Seria A basketball final. Led by a Finn, Reyer Venezia took a big step closer to the third championship in its club history.
Awak Kuier scored 17 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, gave 3 assists and blocked the opponent’s shot twice, as his club Reyer Venezia defeated last years’ reigning team Famila Schio in another Italian women’s basketball final with a score of 85-64 (45-29).
Venezia leads the final matches with 2-0 wins and is one tie away from the championship, whose first break is on Tuesday next week.
The Finnish center, who got the most playing time from his team, got his team off to a great start after bagging Venezia’s first eight points and an 8–2 lead. Kuier collected ten points in the opening period, which showed the direction of the match, when Venezia already led 23–9 at that point.
The home team went into the break with an 18-point lead. In the second period, the pace continued the same, as Venezia was still able to score evenly. Famila Schio was down by 20 points or more for practically the entire rest of the game.
Back player Lisa Bergani took responsibility for ending the attacks and scored a total of 20 points for the winners with an accurate three-pointer. Also Matilde Villa scored 17 points for Venezia with a good percentage. Hungarian Dorka Juhasz was one of Schio’s few successes with 12/15/6s.
Kuier scored 15 points in the first final and was his team’s top scorer in the two-part semifinal (22 and 19 points).
During its history, Venezia has won the championship twice. The most recent championship came in the spring of 2021. Famila Schio has won no less than eight of the ten previous championships and has been in the Italian finals for the 14th time in a row.
Wed 15.5. Venice – Schio 77–65 (29–32)
Friday 17.5. Venice – Schio 85–64 (45–29)
Tue 21.5. Schio – Venice 22.00
if necessary:
Thursday 23.5.Schio – Venezia at 22:00
Sat 26.5. Venezia – Schio 20.00