Cheickh Niang and Patrick Hassan shined bright for the Italian side
Undermanned Trento relied on young talent to get its season rolling
Статьи
3 Минутное чтение
Regular Season
Round 2 of 18
Regular Season
group b
Buducnost VOLI PodgoricaBUD
96107
Dolomiti Energia TrentoTRE
group b
Overview
l
w
w
l
With key players Khalif Battle and DJ Steward sidelined through injury, Dolomiti Energia Trento had a mountain to climb on Wednesday night as it travelled to the MORACA Sports Center to face Buducnost VOLI Podgorica. That mountain appeared even more daunting, given its underwhelming 48-point scoring performance in their EuroCup opener last week.
However, head coach Massimo Cancellieri put his faith in youth and it paid off significantly. After logging just a single point in 11 minutes of his EuroCup debut, 17-year-old forward Cheickh Niang stepped up to take the visitors over the line, adding 3 assists and 3 boards to his 14 points. He wasn’t the only breakout star of the contest, however, as 18-year-old Patrick Hassan backed him up with 11 points of his own. Their coach feels the duo is just getting started.
“Without two very important players like Battle and Steward, we showed up,” Cancellieri said of his team. “I believe that this shows how this group has a big upside, because they stick together, they don’t give up in tough moments and this win is huge for our confidence. We have to believe we can grow up and this win is dedicated to our players, they were able to win this and I’m very happy for them.”
With so little experience at this level, Hassan and Niang made a mark in the excellent victory, which saw their team score 59 more points than in last week’s loss to Bourg. The pair took the increased offensive responsibility and ran with it, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can make a dent in the team’s regular rotation as the season progresses.
Not to be outdone, Trento’s star guard DeVante Jones put on a tremendous offensive display, improving on his EuroCup career high with 24 points while also handing out 7 dimes. Jones was impressed by the way the squad stepped up despite the absence of multiple missing pieces.
“I think it was a big game for us,” he said. “We knew everybody had to step up and everybody showed up really well for this game.”
Conversely, Buducnost coach Andrej Zekelj was less pleased, despite his team getting 96 points on the board.
“We didn’t play defense, it was too soft. 100 points in your home court? It’s totally unacceptable.”