ITA - Montepaschi Siena, Benetton Treviso win play-off openers

ROME (Lega A) - Benetton Treviso and Montepaschi Siena drew first blood in their best-of-five play-off openers in Italy on Wednesday evening.

Facing the side that knocked them out in the semi-finals one year ago, Benetton beat Armani Jeans Milano 83-76 behind Andrea Bargnani's 20 points and Drew Nicholas' 19.

Benetton, who finished only a win shy of first placed Climamio Bologna during the regular season, took the lead for good in the quarter-final clash with less than a minute remaining in the first quarter after a basket from Matthew Santangelo.

They were unable to pull away, however.

Milano, whose point guard is former Benetton star Massimo Bulleri, trailed only 39-36 at half-time after Marcus Goree fouled Dante Calabria while the Italian international was attempting a three-pointer.

The former North Carolina Tar Heel made all three of his shots from the stripe to give Milano some momentum heading to the changing rooms at half-time.

Benetton started the second half better, however.

A Bargnani three-pointer almost seven minutes into the third quarter gave Benetton their biggest advantage at 56-45, but Giacomo Galanda, whose play has improved late in the season for Milano, replied with a shot from the arc.

A three-pointer from Germany international Sven Schultze would end up cutting the deficit to 57-53 by the end of the third quarter for Milano.

They would get no closer the rest of the way, although Milano made Benetton work hard to protect that advantage until the end.

Benetton coach David Blatt will be thrilled that his team was able to prevail without the services of Lithuanian international Ramunas Siskauskas, who picked up a thigh injury in their final game of the regular season, a victory over Montepaschi Siena.

Bulleri had 17 points to pace the visitors, who also got 14 from Preston Schumpert and 13 from Joseph Blair.

In the other game on Wednesday, Montepaschi Siena were 74-64 winners over Lottomatica Roma at the Palasport Mens Sana.

Rimantas Kaukenas, who has been excellent this season for Montepaschi and is expected to receive a call-up by Lithuania for the FIBA World Championship in Japan, had 20 points to lead the winners in scoring.

Markovski signs extension at Virtus

Zare Markovski, who did a magnificent job in charge of Virtus Bologna this season following their promotion from Lega Due, has signed a two-year extension and will be in charge through the 2007-08 campaign.

Virtus, whose main sponsors are VidiVici, narrowly missed out on the play-offs.

By PA Sport, Exclusively for FIBA