From Cindy Garcia-Bennett, PA Sport, Rome

Virtus Bologna have been at or near the top all season in Italy, they finished runners-up in the Coppa Italia and in the EuroCup, an excellent campaign has seen them suffer just three defeats in 12 games.

But some of the fans are unhappy, with the team having suffered three losses on the trot in Lega A.

After Sunday's 78-77 defeat at home to Lottomatica Roma, some of the disgruntled supporters went so far as to pull out their wallets and wave them in the air, signalling to to owner Claudio Sabatini that he needed to spend more money to strengthen the team.

"There are those who are upset even when we are second in the standings and I wonder, what would happen in the future if we were to finish eighth in the standings?" Sabatini said.

The truth of the matter is that being very good isn't acceptable to many of the club's faithful who demand the same kind of excellence which saw them capture numerous titles in Europe and Italy the past decade when the club had players like Sasha Danilovic, Antoine Rigaudeau and Manu Ginobili.

The fact that Virtus hit hard times and dropped into Lega Due for a couple of campaigns and only won promotion back to Lega A before last season is irrelevant to them.

Players, and coach Markovski admitted earlier in the season the team had been overachieving, while Sabatini himself had acknowledged Virtus were being given a helping hand by injuries at other clubs.

Going into the EuroCup best-of-three quarter-final at Turk Telekom, Virtus would be more than happy to shoot anything close to the percentages they displayed against Roma.

One thing is certain.

If Virtus struggle to rebound as they did against Roma, the task will always be difficult.

Virtus lost on Sunday because they did not box out on the defensive end, allowing the determined Romans to grab 15 offensive rebounds.

It meant the superb shooting - they were 20 of 37 (54.1%) inside the arc and a scintillating nine of 16 (56.3%) from three-point range - counted for nothing.

"Our last three consecutive defeats don't have a logical explanation that links them with the exception of rebounds," Markovski admitted.

"We shot better than Roma from two- and three-point range but it hasn't been enough," Markovski said.

"Roma has had 14 possessions more than we have and that was due to rebounds."

Against Turk Telekom, Virtus know they will need a positive start to enhance their chances of reaching the Final Four.

More than anything, however, Markovski and Co need to win just to get the feel-good factor back.