After swiping a 7DAYS EuroCup season-high 15 steals on the way to a 78-83 road win against ratiopharm Ulm on Wednesday, Prometey Slobozhanske is not only holding fast to first place in Group A, but threatening to make some statistical history, too.
While head coach Ronan Ginzburg's squad is doing a lot of things right, it is stealing the ball at a truly rare rate of 9.8 times per game.
To put that into perspective, no EuroCup team has topped 10.0 steals on average since a team from Groningen, Netherlands, had 10.8 per game while losing its only six games back in 2011-12. Prior to that, more than 100 teams were shown to have had 10-plus per game over a season, but that was largely due to the statistical criteria for steals being applied very loosely in many countries. But since the application of that criteria was tightened, no team has thrived on robbery like this season's displaced Ukrainian powerhouse.
"To keep Ulm to 78 points, it's a big achievement," Ginzburg said after the game. "Usually, we are trying to be aggressive on defense. We have players who can do that. Sometimes it works, sometimes not."
It did not work when Prometey first met Ulm back in a Round 6 game played at Zalgirio Arena in Kaunas, Lithuania. Ulm won that one 105-106 in regulation time, the second-highest scoring game in the league this season.
On Wednesday, however, Prometey's defenders took back the momentum after Ulm ran out to a 14-5 lead, making 9 steals in the next 10 minutes to get back in the game. By the end of the third quarter, Prometey had 14 of its total 15 steals and a 56-64 lead that it protected the rest of the way.