The Italian side has won back-to-back road games after the national team break
Jakimovski, Trento make statement with win at Bourg: 'We’re not gonna stop here'
Game Report
3 Mins read
Regular Season
Round 10 of 18
Regular Season
group b
Cosea JL Bourg-en-BresseJLB
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Dolomiti Energia TrentoTRE
group b
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Dolomiti Energia Trento clearly took advantage of the national team break to reenergize itself, coming out with two strong road wins – the second being a major shock as the Italian outfit routed Group B leader Cosea JL Bourg-en-Bresse.
Trento shrugged off a nightmare start to the game and showed its mental strength with a 73-91 victory to hand Bourg its first home loss of the season.
The visiting team's fans must have been watching the first five minutes and Bourg’s 21-5 lead and had more nightmares from the disaster at home in Round 1, when Trento lost 48-79 loss against the French side. But this is a different team than the one on October 1, responding with a 2-23 run to take the lead, with the cushion growing to 14 points in the second quarter.
Bourg scored 13 consecutive points in the third quarter and the lead was down to one point at 48-49. Trento had taken the hosts' punches, but it did not break and never handed over the lead. Massimo Cancellieri’s men even began to pull away in the fourth quarter, with a 21-point margin at one point.
“We were solid. The reaction from Bourg came. We were sure. We stayed poised and we were waiting for our time. I’m happy that the whole team participated in this,” said Cancellieri, whose team is now 5-5 in Group B with a 4-2 mark on the road.
Bourg handed over its lead in the standings with an 8-2 record – including 4-1 at the Ekinox. Besiktas GAIN Istanbul tops Group B as it beat Bourg in the first half of the regular season.
"We are happy because Besiktas was the only team to beat them. So we are the second, and we are proud of this result. The season will finish when it finishes. Now we have to enjoy this and get some confidence for the next game,” said Cancellieri.
The coach talked about the difference of his team from that Round 1 game.
“That was our first shock of the season. We had the pre-season and the Super Cup against Italian teams. And then we show up ready, steady, go in the EuroCup against the most athletic team that we could face. We weren’t terrible, we were like ghosts,” he said.
“From there we started the process. It’s not finished but I think what we did today is a little bit closer to what we have to do for the EuroCup level. The players have to be proud of what they are doing, the commitment and the attitude that they have. But this is not history. We are in December.”
Cancellieri credits the FIBA break for some of the team’s stronger play.
“The national team break gave us a little bit more energy. We gave them some days off. And they refreshed a bit mentally. We took advantage of that. But now we have to work to keep doing this,” he said.
The biggest key to Trento scoring 91 points against the number one defense in the EuroCup was Andrej Jakimovski.
The 24-year-old is playing his first full professional season in Europe after a college career in the United States. The forward tied his career high with 30 points and added 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and 10 fouls drawn for an index rating of 43. His PIR of 43 set a Trento record in the EuroCup, topping the previous best of 41 by Gary Browne in 2020-21.
“I am happy about the team. I am proud of the team. We showed resilience, we showed amazing effort. We came back. We had an awful start. But I am happy about this win. We’re not gonna stop here. We’re going to keep going. We’re getting better. It’s an incredible win,” Jakimovski said.
While Trento is celebrating a big upset, Bourg will now look for answers.
"I am disappointed that we lost but Trento played very well so they deserved to win. We played five good minutes in the first half and five good minutes in the second half and that is not enough to win a game,” Bourg head coach Frederic Fauthoux said after the game, as his team made just 33.3% of its two-pointers.
