Petteri Koponen Watch: Bum Ankle Edition

Our Finnish consultant Hippo took a long enough break from watching Stig Dogg videos to drop us a Petteri Koponen update. Spoiler alert: it features the unfortunate return of our man's minor ankle injury...

Another week and another euro for Petteri Koponen in Italian Serie A basketball. Unfortunately, our beloved Finnagler couldn't hold the court this time after being sidelined with a bum ankle earlier this week.

The same ankle has been bothering Koponen ever since 2009 Serie A playoffs tipped off last May. Former Virtus' coach Matteo Bonicinolli played Koponen sparingly in the playoffs because of Koponen's ankle, and even though the condition of the ankle isn't too serious, Koponen has been sidelined a couple of times over the last few months. Even though I haven't found out any details, Koponen is scheduled to be back in action next Sunday so this must have been mostly a precautionary act.

Virtus was indeed in a strange situation yesterday—three point guards (Koponen, Andre Collins, Riccardo Moraschini) out with injuries. Angelico Biella pressured Scoonie Penn to death and poor old Scoonie could only come out with six points (1-9 on field goals) in 33 minutes, although it must be noticed, that he only turned the ball over once.

Angelico Biella snatched the victory 79-76 (39-36) with Joe Smith (no, not THAT Joe Smith) finishing with 18 points and four assists and Fred Jones netting 15.

Next week's game should be interesting, with Koponen and Virtus Bologna meeting Martos Napoli at home.

Napoli has suffered two butt-ugly defeats in first two rounds after struggling with league-handled penalties and bad budget throughout the month of October. Napoli acquired NBA veteran Damon "Basketball" Jones to stop their losing ways and it should be interesting to see Koponen and Jones face off next Sunday.

For Finnish basketball fans, this is also a clash of two former Honka Playboys starters, since Koponen's former teammate, Kimmo "He-Man" Muurinen is the starting power forward for team Napoli.

Angelico Biella-Virtus Bologna 79-76 (21-26, 39-36, 61-56)

Biella: Joe Smith 18/1/4 assists, Fred Jones 15/2, Sven Schultze 11/4.
Virtus: LeRoy Hurd 18/6, David Moss 14/3/4 assists, Dusan Vukcevic 13/1.

-Hippo