Libertas Pallacanestro Asti was a professional basketball club based in

Asti Asti ( , , ; pms, Ast ) is a ''comune'' of 74,348 inhabitants (1-1-2021) located in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy, about east of Turin in the plain of the Tanaro River. It is the capital of the province of Asti and it is deemed t ...

, Italy.

History

Libertas Asti was founded in 1954 and under the sponsorship of Saclà, passed from Serie D to Serie A in five years with the Hungarian coach Lajos Tóth. In the first participation in the

premier league The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

of the 1972–73 Serie A Saclà Asti was ranked in eighth place, also it reached the final of the

Italian Cup Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and defeated by

Ignis Varese Pallacanestro Varese, also called by its current sponsor's name, the Openjobmetis Varese, is an Italian professional basketball club based in Varese, Lombardy. Founded in 1945, the team plays in the Italian first division LBA. For past club sp ...

, and getting access to the

FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup The FIBA Saporta Cup was the name of the second-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, where the domestic National Cup winners, from all over Europe, played against each other. The competition was organized by FIBA E ...

. In the 1973–74 season, due to the unavailability of a gambling facility approved for the Cup Winners' Cup, Saclà played its home games at

PalaRuffini PalaRuffini, formerly known as Palasport di Torino, is a multi-purpose Indoor arena located in Turin, Italy. It is primarily used for basketball and volleyball games, as well as boxing matches and concerts. The arena's seating capacity is 4,500 pe ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, finishing in sixth place. The shame season the club played in the

1973–74 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup The 1973–74 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup was the eighth edition of FIBA's 2nd-tier level European-wide professional club basketball competition, contested between national domestic cup champions, running from October 1973, to 4 April 1974. It ...

and reached to play in the semifinals where it excluded by the

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

powerhouse

Spartak ZJŠ Brno FC Zbrojovka Brno is a professional football club based in the city of Brno, South Moravia, Czech Republic and named after Zbrojovka Brno, a firearms manufacturer. Founded in 1913 as SK Židenice, the club later became known as Zbrojovka Brno. ...

(86–70 win in Turin, 71–88 defeat in

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

).http://www.linguasport.com/baloncesto/internacional/clubes/c2/c2_e.htm/ 1973–74 FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup At the end of the season, remaining the unavailability of a suitable arena, Libertas established a twinning agreement with Auxilium Torino presided over by Fr. Gino Borgogno (accepted by the League to the Championship of Basketball Series A2 of the new institution), with which they moved into Turin-based club the best elements of the first team (as Dante Anconetani, John Laing, Alberto embattled, Brown Edge, Romeo Sacchetti, etc.), the coach Lajos Tóth, the managerial staff and Saclà sponsors, while Charlie Caglieris, considered the " flag "of the team, was sold for budgetary reasons to

Fortitudo Bologna Fortitudo Pallacanestro Bologna 103, commonly known as Fortitudo Bologna and currently known as Fortitudo Kiğılı Bologna for sponsorship reasons, is a basketball club based in Bologna, Italy and currently plays in the second division. Histor ...

. The club Asti then decided to give up the Series A1 and the Series B share with a team mainly made up of players from the youth sector of the

Auxilium Torino Auxilium Pallacanestro Torino was an Italian professional basketball club that was based in Turin, Piedmont. It competed in the first division of Italian basketball, the LBA for the last time in the 2018–19 season. The club won one trophy, wh ...

. After just one year in Serie B the company disbanded (1976).

Honours

: ''Runners-up (1)'': 1972–73

In European and worldwide competitions

Match table

References

{{Reflist 1954 establishments in Italy Asti Basketball teams established in 1954 Basketball teams in Piedmont Defunct basketball teams in Italy Basketball teams disestablished in 1976 1976 disestablishments in Italy