From Cindy Garcia-Bennett, PA Sport, Bologna

Virtus Bologna aren't going to forget January 24.

They received a good old fashioned whipping by Akasvayu Girona, a 106-74 victory over Virtus that sent out a message about which of the two teams had the best chance of winning the EuroCup.

If Virtus want to avenge that setback, or at least bring Girona back down to earth, they have the ideal situation to do so on Tuesday night at the Pala Malaguti when the teams meet again.

"The game against Girona was a very difficult one for us," said Virtus' small forward Guilherme Giovannoni.

"It's difficult to digest our performance that night and a defeat like the one we conceded in Girona against a very strong team.

"It wasn't easy to bounce back from that defeat."

It was such a blowout that the result was beyond doubt at half-time, when Akasvayu led 71-33.

The hangover lasted through the weekend as well, when Virtus slipped up at Whirlpool Varese.

"We lost against Varese even though we played better with respect to the game against Girona," Guilherme said.

"We seem to have got back on track, we picked ourselves up against Dijon and then against Udine at home so we are back, we have recovered."

Virtus reached the Coppa Italia final but lost to Benetton Treviso, and over the weekend they slipped up against Cantu (99-92) in Lega A to fall two games off the lead held by Montepaschi Siena.

Michael Hakim Jordan scored 33 points for Cantu, while Brett Blizzard and Dusan Vukcevic each had 22 points for Virtus.