It’s fair to say that Slask Wroclaw was desperate for victory when it hosted Dolomiti Energia Trento for the final 7DAYS EuroCup game of the calendar year on Wednesday night.
The Polish team was sitting rock bottom of Group B after suffering defeats in its first eight games of the season, taking its overall losing sequence in the competition to 13 games – the joint eighth-worst run by any team in EuroCup history.
One glimmer of hope heading into the game, though, was that Slask’s last victory had come on 9 March 2022, against none other than Wednesday’s visitor Trento. And lightning did indeed strike twice at Centennial Hall as Slask gave its fans some much-needed festive cheer by cruising to a thumping 80-57 victory, which also means that Trento has now lost 20 consecutive EuroCup road games and sits just one win ahead of Slask at the foot of the group.
The tone for the night ahead was set in the first quarter in two respects: Slask’s excellent defense, and Jeremiah Martin leading the way at both ends of the court. Martin scored two of the first three baskets for his team and then contributed a couple more during a 15-0 run that gave Slask complete control. During that time, Trento was held scoreless for 4 and a half minutes by a determined home team defense, inspired again by Martin as he snared a pair of steals.