Italy - Bennet Cantu Opens Regular Season Play With Two Victories

(Image - Bennet Cantu's David Lighty drives against Drake Diener of Dinamo Sassari - Palasport Arena - Cantu, Italy - 10.16.2011)

10.9.2011 - Bennet Cantu 72 at Vanoli Cremona 60 (Italian League Regular Season - Game One)
- David Lighty: (8 minutes - 0-2)

10.16.2011 - Bennet Cantu 71 vs Dinamo Sassari 58 (Italian League Regular Season - Game Two)
-David Lighty: 3 points, 2 rebounds (11 minutes)

Regular Season Time - David Lighty & Bennet Cantu had a week to regroup for the Serie A regular season after a tough defeat in the 2011 Super Coppa Finals versus Siena (10.1.2011 - box). The opening challenge for Cantu was a road test against Von Wafer and Vanoli Cremona (10.9.2011). We followed Cremona closely last season because their starting shooting guard happened to be Buckeye Je'Kel Foster. They almost made the 2010/2011 playoffs and returned some players from that squad like Slovenian Marko Milic and Croatian Jasmin Perkovic to go with newcomers Brandon Thomas and Wafer who played with the Boston Celtics last season. We thought this would be a difficult road opener for Cantu, but the Serie A runner-ups from last season jumped out to a 21-8 first period and then controlled the rest of the way for a 72-60 victory.

Cantu's next contest was a home game vs another familar team, Dinamo Sassari who enjoyed the services of Buckeye Othello Hunter in 2010/2011 (Brent Darby in 2006/2007 as well). Sassari's current top names are American cousins Travis & Drake Diener, Quinton Hosley, and rookie big man Keith Benson out of Oakland University. This game was even at halftime (30-30), but Cantu had one of those dominating quarters agaub by winning the 3rd, 22-9 (it was 52-39 heading into the 4th) . Rookie David Lighty scored his first regular season points on a three pointer to give Cantu a 63-50 lead with 3 minutes remaining in the game. Both teams ended up trading buckets down the stretch (4th was even at 19-19) with Cantu winning the game by that 13 point 3rd quarter margin (boxscore).

These were two solid opening victories for Cantu, especially with the Euroleague schedule about to hit on October 19. We did not view extended film of the first two league games, but it seems evident that head coach Trincieri is keeping David Lighty in a limited/reserve role for now as he navigates his club through these huge early season games. Bennet Cantu has significant experience so it will only take some time for Dave (pictured left: Preseason 2011) to get fully acclimated chemistry-wise (which should earn more minutes as he starts to show more & more).

#4 Lighty looked pretty good scoring his first regular season pro points..the play was a 4th Quarter three pointer versus Dinamo Sassari October 16. Check it out in these clips of the game, Lighty's three sequence starts at the 2:05 mark!