The Italian side turned 20 offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points
Trento crashes offensive glass to 'get back on track' with first home win
Spielbericht
3 Lesezeit
Regular Season
Round 6 of 18
Regular Season
group b
Dolomiti Energia TrentoTRE
7874
Lietkabelis PanevezysLIE
group b
Overview
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Dolomiti Energia Trento used a major rebounding advantage to keep Lietkabelis Panevezys reeling and get itself back on track with its first home victory in the BKT EuroCup.
Trento grabbed 20 offensive rebounds en route to a 78-74 win over Lietkabelis - twice giving up double-digit leads, but still prevailing.
“The team played a solid game. We made our mistakes, but it was important for us to take this win at home,” Trento head coach Massimo Cancellieri said in the post-game interview. “We needed it for us. We wanted to get back on track a little bit.”
“With that first half, we didn’t deserve to win - it doesn’t matter how we played in the second half. To play defense like that in the first half - without rebounds, not running - we didn’t deserve to win,” said Lietkabelis head coach Nenad Canak.
The Lithuanian side managed only 31 first-half points and was outrebounded 25-12. Lietkabelis also could not take better advantage of 10 Trento turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
Lietkabelis crashed to a fifth straight loss and saw its record drop to 1-5. Not even Michael Flowers scoring 19 points with 7 assists and Augustine Rubit adding 18 points was enough.
Cancellieri can thank his team’s effort on the offensive glass as six players snatched multiple offensive rebounds. The Italian side outrebounded Lietkabelis 47-31, including a 20-9 advantage in offensive boards, which resulted in a 19-11 scoring difference in second-chance points in Trento’s favor.
That was all the more impressive given that limiting the opposing team’s offensive rebounds was a strength for Lietkabelis, which had conceded a EuroCup-low 8.0 offensive rebounds coming into the game.
While Peyton Aldridge and Andrej Jakimovski combined for 7 offensive rebounds, Trento's scoring punch was handled by DeVante Jones and DJ Steward, who scored 21 and 17 points, respectively and combined for 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.
“We are just trying to win. Our team is doing a good job playing with more confidence. The coaches are doing a great job pushing us to get better each and every day. We just gotta keep going,” said Jones.
The guard was there whenever Trento needed a score, registering 13 fouls drawn, which he turned into 10 made free throws.
Trento made things more difficult for itself than it had to be. The team watched Lietkabelis go on a 5-19 run to erase a 14-point lead in the third quarter and then an 8-18 surge to even the game 68-68.
But it was a matter of bending, not breaking, for Trento, which never allowed Lietkabelis to pull ahead. Steward and Jones made the big plays down the stretch - combining for 8 of Trento’s final 10 points to get the win.
Trento is back on track with what it has done at home recently in the EuroCup. The Italian club registered a 4-5 record in front of its home fans in each of the last three seasons and its fans surely hope the team has turned a corner in the EuroCup.
